Executive function
Does how children grasp relate to executive function?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Children who more consistently used their right hand and reached into right-side space first while grasping had better parent-rated executive function, whereas how fast they finished the tasks was unrelated.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Correlation and regression between video-coded grasping behaviour (completion time, hand use, order of space use) and parent-rated BRIEF executive-function scores in two age groups
- N
- N=40 · 40 right-handed children: 19 aged 5-6 and 21 aged 9-10; analyses run on both groups together and on each age group
- Population
- Healthy right-handed Canadian children recruited around the University of Lethbridge
- Outcome
- BRIEF executive-function scores (Global Executive Composite, indices, subscales) related to percent right-hand use, right-hemispace/right-near space use order, and time to complete grasp-to-construct and grasp-to-place tasks
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Key findings
Completion time did not correlate with any executive-function score. Greater right-hand use correlated with better executive function, most clearly in the block-placing task (overall composite r = -0.37) and especially for inhibition and monitoring; earlier use of right and right-near space in the LEGO task correlated with better scores, mainly in the older children. In regressions, right-hand and right-near-space use predicted the executive-function composite (a model explaining 15.7% of variance) and executive function in turn predicted right-hand use, while age did not predict executive function.
Methodology
Forty right-handed children aged 5-6 or 9-10 completed two video-recorded grasping games: building copies of LEGO models from pieces spread across four table quadrants, and picking numbered or coloured blocks off a grid and dropping them in a box as the experimenter called them out. Researchers coded completion time, the percentage of grasps made with the right hand, and how early each region of the table was used. Meanwhile a parent completed the BRIEF, a questionnaire rating everyday executive-function problems, where lower scores mean better function.
Limitations
With 40 children and dozens of correlations tested at p < .05 without correction, some associations are likely false positives, and several reported effects are only trends. Executive function was measured solely by a parent questionnaire rather than lab tasks, which the authors name as a limitation, and all children were right-handed, so the claim about brain lateralization (and whether strongly left-handed children would show the same) is untested speculation. The design is correlational, so it cannot show that training right-hand use would improve executive function, although the authors propose this.
How this study connects
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