Executive Skills and Early Childhood Education

Zachary T. Barnes, PhD, is Associate Professor of Literacy in the College of Education at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he directs the Center for Literacy. His research focuses on how socioeconomic status and executive skills affect children's reading development. Dr. Barnes is a former special education teacher.Kelly B. Cartwright, PhD, is the Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she directs the Reading, Executive Function, and Development Lab (READ Lab) and serves as Co-Coordinator for the PhD concentration in Literacy Research, Policy, and Practice and on the Executive Board for the Mebane Early Literacy Center. Her research focuses on the development of skilled reading comprehension and the neurocognitive and affective factors that underlie comprehension processes and difficulties from preschool through adulthood. Dr. Cartwright regularly works with teachers in schools throughout the United States to better understand and improve comprehension instruction for striving readers, and these experiences inform her research.

• 1. Executive Skills and Self-Regulation: What Are They, and Why Are They Important?2. Playful Learning: Why Play Is Key in Developing Executive Skills and Self-Regulation3. Talking to Learn: Building Language Ability to Foster Executive Skills and Self-Regulation4. Developing Early Literacy: Links to Executive Skills and Self-Regulation5. How Executive Skills and Self-Regulation Are Connected to Behavior6. Scaffolding Executive Skills to Support Students with Disabilities in the Early Childhood Classroom7. The Power of Teachers: Executive Skills and Self-Regulation for Early Childhood EducatorsAppendix: Executive Skills Questionnaire--Adult VersionReferencesIndex

“Barnes and Cartwright have produced the ultimate guide to understanding and improving young children's self-regulation. Translating science to practice, this book offers clear explanations and practical suggestions for working with all children in the classroom. Barnes's and Cartwright's individual expertise in special education and neuroscience, respectively, complement each other perfectly. This book will surely be a standard reference for early childhood educators everywhere. I expect it will be a favorite of my students for years to come.â€--Stuart Marcovitch, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro“This book provides an excellent overview of self-regulation, ES, and how they support children’s learning and development. The authors do an outstanding job of translating the research into accessible, practical strategies to promote the growth of ES in early childhood education settings. A great resource for teachers and early childhood specialists.â€--Sammy Ahmed, PhD, Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Rhode Island-