Thériault-Couture Frédéric, Matte-Gagné Célia, Bernier Annie
School of Psychology, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Dev Sci. 2025 May;28(3):e70010. doi: 10.1111/desc.70010.
Executive functions (EFs) emerge in the first years of life and are essential for many areas of child development. However, intraindividual developmental trajectories of EF during toddlerhood and their associations with ongoing development of language skills remain poorly understood. The present three-wave study examined these trajectories and their associations with language skills. Child EF and vocabulary were assessed around 13, 19, and 28 months of age in a sample of 145 toddlers (51% boys) from mostly White families. At each time point, mothers reported on child receptive and expressive vocabulary, and EF were assessed with three behavioral tasks targeting inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. Multilevel growth models revealed that toddlerhood is a period of significant developmental growth in child inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. The findings also provide evidence for a sustained relation between toddlers' language skills and their ongoing acquisition of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. This study offers novel insight into intraindividual developmental changes in EF during toddlerhood and the role of language in these meaningful, though neglected, changes.
执行功能（EFs）在生命的最初几年出现，对儿童发展的许多方面至关重要。然而，幼儿期EF的个体内发展轨迹及其与语言技能持续发展的关联仍知之甚少。本三项式研究考察了这些轨迹及其与语言技能的关联。在来自主要为白人家庭的145名幼儿（51%为男孩）样本中，分别在13、19和28个月大时对儿童的EF和词汇量进行了评估。在每个时间点，母亲报告儿童的接受性和表达性词汇量，并用针对抑制控制、认知灵活性和工作记忆的三项行为任务评估EF。多层次增长模型显示，幼儿期是儿童抑制控制、认知灵活性和工作记忆显著发展的时期。研究结果还为幼儿语言技能与其不断获得的抑制控制和认知灵活性之间的持续关系提供了证据。本研究为幼儿期EF的个体内发展变化以及语言在这些虽有意义但被忽视的变化中的作用提供了新的见解。
