Improving Kindergarten Readiness in Children with Developmental Disabilities: Changes in Neural Correlates of Self-Regulation

Children entering formal schooling for the first time face a new set of rules and activities for which they will have varying degrees of preparation. A number of executive functions would be critical to children trying to learn new rules and behaviors in a kindergarten environment. One critical skill is a child’s ability to distinguish whether they are performing a new skill or task well. This is referred to as performance monitoring or response monitoring and has two pieces: the child’s ability to recognize internally when he or she has made a mistake and the child’s ability to recognize feedback from others about whether they have made a mistake. The child who is able to complete these executive functions successfully is likely to be able to seek out relevant information in learning new skills, recognize pertinent feedback about when they are not doing well, and eventually, be able to recognize themselves when they are performing the skill well.  Thus, part of being ready for school may be having the abilities to successfully focus attention and monitor one’s own successful (or unsuccessful) performance.

We examined the effects of a school readiness intervention to increase children’s abilities to focus attention and regulate emotions and behavior on children with developmental disabilities.  Executive functioning and broader self-regulatory skills are areas in which children with developmental disabilities often have particular problems, which might cause cascading difficulties in academics and social relationships. Conversely, better self-regulation can serve as a protective factor for these children.

Using a Flanker task during which we collected event related potential (ERP) data, we focused on the children’s neural response to feedback performance as measured by the feedback related negativity (FRN).  Interaction effects revealed changes in performance across time for the intervention group (F(1,39) = 13.63, p =.001). Specifically, children who received the intervention showed a significant increase in their FRNs from baseline to the end of the summer just before entry into kindergarten (t(19)=4.90, p=.000), while children in a services-as-usual condition showed a slight, but non-significant decline (t(20)=-1.18, ns). These results suggest that a behavioral intervention designed to increase the school readiness skills of children at high risk for difficulties in school may positively impact children at a neurobiological level. Results also highlight the need for programs to enhance self-regulation skills prior to school entry.