Performances in executive functions in preschool children: relationship with children’s age and their receptive and expressive language skills

The aim of this study was to determine performances in executive functions in preschool children and the relationship with children's age and their receptive and expressive language skills. The study was conducted in four public kindergartens in Baltim that approved the research. The study was conducted on three age groups: 3 (3 years, 0 months - 3 years, 11 months), 4 (4 years, 0 months - 4 years, 11 months), and 5 (5 years, 0 months - 5 years, 11 months). A total of 160 children were included, 83 girls and 77 boys. The Mann-Whitney U test was also applied to analyze gender differences. The relationships between executive function tasks and the Arabic receptive and expressive language skills test were analyzed using the Spearman rank correlation test. A significance level of .05 was used in all analyses. Findings from the Night/Day Task indicate no significant age-related performance increase related to this task. When the relationship between Language Test scores and executive function tasks was examined, it was found that NDT had no relationship with receptive and expressive language scores.