Executive Function Facilitates Learning Mathematics in Early Childhood

Differences in children’s readiness for school can yield meaningful differences in later life success. One key area is executive function (EF)—a set of cognitive skills that help us control our behavior, emotions, actions, and thoughts in the pursuit of goals. Strong EF skills are related to positive outcomes throughout life, including higher educational attainment, better earnings, and stronger social skills. Early math skills also predict future academic success, career options, income, and physical health. Among various skills tied to math learning, EF stands out as a particularly strong predictor, even more than intelligence, processing speed, language, and family sociodemographic characteristics. However, we do not fully understand why EF and math are so closely linked, and there is limited evidence that EF and math are causally related. In this talk, I will explore how EF and math skills relate in young children and show evidence that EF can disrupt the rank-order stability in mathematics, making it a valuable area to target for early math support. I will discuss one possible explanation for the role of EF in math learning and share details of a preschool EF intervention that positively impacted math skills. Finally, I will outline future directions for exploring how EF might directly influence math skills and the potential of scalable, accessible, and flexible interventions to improve both EF and math.

Dr. Andy Ribner is an interdisciplinary developmental scientist whose work focuses on early childhood cognitive development and education. His work is guided by the overarching goal of setting children up for success as they enter school and improving educational outcomes for all children—particularly children whose lives have been negatively affected by systemic inequity. Ribner is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Chatham University and Research Associate in the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his PhD in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Applied Psychology in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (PhD’19), and his research journey started at Wesleyan University (BA ’14). Ribner’s primary area of study is on the development of children’s self-regulatory skills and their role in math learning in and out of classroom settings. Additionally, he studies the antecedents and consequences of screen-based media use in young children.