Include attention regulation and control training in early childhood programs for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that early childhood programs for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may include training in attention regulation and control, hypothesizing that "interventions targeting attention skills may serve as a force-multiplier, leading to improvements in domains outside of attention." This stems from the documented ERP finding of reduced distractor suppression among children of lower maternal education. The strategy is explicitly framed by the authors as a hypothesis for future research, to be investigated through intervention studies within comprehensive programs of systemic change, not as a validatedstandalone remedy.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Implemented as part of larger efforts of systemic change addressing socioeconomic and class divides, per the article's framing

Constraints¶

• The article states such an intervention "should not be perceived as a 'quick fix' to the impacts of persistent poverty and low socioeconomic status"; the force-multiplier hypothesis awaits future research to establish viability

Target Learners¶

• preschool and school-age children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds

Target Learning Goals¶

• improving selective attention and self-regulation skills

Claims¶

• Children of higher maternal education showed a significantly larger attention effect on neural responses (mean attended–unattended difference 1.7 vs. 0.6 μV) [+M]
• Attention and self-regulation skills are trainable in children, with reported behavioral and neural changes across curricula and intervention programs [+M]
• The effect of selective auditory attention on early neural processing differs between children of higher and lower maternal education (significant group × attention interaction within 100–200 msec) [+M]
• The group difference in neural attentional modulation is tied to reduced distractor suppression in the unattended channel, not to differences in response to attended stimuli [+M]

Related Strategies¶

• Prioritize systematic developmental and longitudinal studies of attention control across a wide age range, including toddlers and kindergarten children

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Stevens Courtney, Lauinger Brittni, Neville Helen. (2009). Differences in the neural mechanisms of selective attention in children from different socioeconomic backgrounds: An event-related brain potential study. Developmental Science, 12(4), 634-646. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00807.x