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Cited by 597Early Childhood Education and DevelopmentDevelopmental and Educational NeuropsychologyCognitive Abilities and Testing

Predictors of early growth in academic achievement: the head-toes-knees-shoulders task

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McClelland, Megan M., Cameron, Claire E., Duncan, Robert, Bowles, Ryan P., Acock, Alan C., Miao, Alicia, Pratt, Megan E.·2014·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00599PMC PMC4060410
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Abstract

Children's behavioral self-regulation and executive function (EF; including attentional or cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control) are strong predictors of academic achievement. The present study examined the psychometric properties of a measure of behavioral self-regulation called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS) by assessing construct validity, including relations to EF measures, and predictive validity to academic achievement growth between prekindergarten and kindergarten. In the fall and spring of prekindergarten and kindergarten, 208 children (51% enrolled in Head Start) were assessed on the HTKS, measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory (WM), and inhibitory control, and measures of emergent literacy, mathematics, and vocabulary. For construct validity, the HTKS was significantly related to cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control in prekindergarten and kindergarten. For predictive validity in prekindergarten, a random effects model indicated that the HTKS significantly predicted growth in mathematics, whereas a cognitive flexibility task significantly predicted growth in mathematics and vocabulary. In kindergarten, the HTKS was the only measure to significantly predict growth in all academic outcomes. An alternative conservative analytical approach, a fixed effects analysis (FEA) model, also indicated that growth in both the HTKS and measures of EF significantly predicted growth in mathematics over four time points between prekindergarten and kindergarten. Results demonstrate that the HTKS involves cognitive flexibility, working memory, and inhibitory control, and is substantively implicated in early achievement, with the strongest relations found for growth in achievement during kindergarten and associations with emergent mathematics.

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Cited by

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Authors
McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C. E., Duncan, R., Bowles, R. P., Acock, A. C., Miao, A., & Pratt, M. E.
Affiliations
  • Oregon State University (US)
  • University of Virginia (US)
  • Michigan State University (US)
Corresponding author
McClelland, Megan M.
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2014-06-17
Volume
5
Pages
599-599
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00599
PMC
PMC4060410
OpenAlex
W2057942812
Cited by
597
References
13
Citations by year
2026: 45 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 73 · 2021: 70 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 62 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 4
FWCI
126.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Grantee Submission
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Education (R305A100566)
  • Oregon State University
  • Institute of Education Sciences (R305A100566)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Keywords
behavioral self-regulation, executive function, cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibitory control, emergent mathematics, emergent literacy, vocabulary, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, Head Start, construct validity, predictive validity

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