Promoting the Development of Executive Functioning for Children from 1st through 5th Grade Using Brainwise®

Research has shown that promoting executive functioning skills (e.g., emotional regulation, goal orientated behavior, decision making) and social-emotional skills (e.g., emotion understanding, competent social problem solving, positive social behavior) in children can lead to many positive outcomes such as reduced risk of substance abuse (Patrick et al., 2008) and improved educational outcomes (Crean & Johnson, 2013). The BrainWise® program is a 20 hour curriculum program which was developed to help teach children both executive and social-emotional skills (Barry & Welsh, 2007); therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether the program was effective at increasing these skills.

From 2013 to 2014, about 539 children (from 1st to 5th grade) at a Colorado elementary school participated in the program (51.8% female). Children ranged from 5 to 12 years old (M=7.47, SD=1.39).  These children completed a pre and post survey which included questions that directly targeted the program’s core curriculum which focuses on executive functioning skills (e.g., exiting their emotions elevator, how to recognize internal and external red flags) and social-emotional skills (e.g., developing a constellation of support, improving communication skills). 

A MANOVA was conducted to investigate if there were changes from pre to post in both executive functioning skills and social-emotional skills. The results revealed that many executive skills were improved from pre to post. For example, the analysis revealed that there was a significant (p=.03) increase from pre (M=3.09 SD=1.28) to post (M=3.27, SD=1.30) in participants’ ability to control emotions, a significant (p=.008) increase from pre (M=2.60, SD=1.17) to post (M=2.80, SD=1.11) in participants ability to ask informative questions;  a significant (p=.001) increase from pre (M=1.25, SD=.75) to post (M=1.46, SD=.69) in setting goals, and a significant (p=.04) increase from pre (M=10.26, SD=3.03) to post (M=10.72, SD=2.82) in positive decision making. However, the results did not reveal any other significant differences in social-emotional skills from pre to post (p>.05) such as communicating effectively and building a constellation of support.

The results revealed that BrainWise® can play a very beneficial role in helping students develop important skills to thrive academically and socially. It is important to consider programs as effective as BrainWise® when thinking about prevention and public policy since such programs can help children develop positive life skills and potentially deter them from substance abuse and other negative outcomes. BrainWise’s® success throughout Colorado can serve as a model when considering policy decisions and implementation in other states.