Executive Functioning Measures from Early Childhood to School Age: Exploring Prospective Associations

This study aimed to identify tasks targeting early executive functioning (EF) that are predictive of EF performance at early school age (kindergarten and Grade 1). Using data from 202 participants, we examined the associations between EF performance at 2, 3, or 4 years of age and performance on commonly used EF tasks at early school age. The results show that some but not all early childhood tasks predicted EF in kindergarten and Grade 1. The results point to the potential of some early EF tasks while highlighting the challenge of calibrating task difficulty at an early age.