ABSTRACT Most students with mathematics difficulties (MD) have deficiencies in executive function (EF). Most previous studies have explored the effect of a single EF training phase on MD. This study compared the effects of one versus two phases of EF training in 32 primary school students with MD, randomly assigned to a training or control group. Six months after the initial 25 training sessions, the training group participated in a retraining phase (12 sessions). The training group performed significantly better at Stroop task than the control group after retraining. However, we found the effects were similar when comparing the benefits of the first training alone to the total benefits of both two training phases combined. EF retraining didn't bring additional gains on EF and mathematics for MD. Specifically, these results suggest interventions could be optimized by focusing resources on the initial training phase, given the comparable gains achieved in the first round.
Heng-yun et al. (Mon,) studied this question.