Children's representation of specialized skilled movements: The cases of snowboarding and aikido.

This article investigates children's graphic representation of two complex motor skills, snowboarding and aikido, from the perspective of drawing flexibility research. In particular, the role of working memory capacity in the development of drawing flexibility is examined. A total of 127 children in the age range 5.

Case Report: A playful digital-analogical rehabilitative intervention to enhance working memory capacity and executive functions in a pre-school child with autism.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often associated with deficits in Working Memory Capacity (WMC) and Executive Functions (EFs), as early as the first years of life. Research has shown that, even young children with ASD, WMC and EF deficits can be effectively addressed through interventions employing digital and/or analogical tools. Early intervention is important because executive dysfunction can negatively impact on the quality of life, both of children and their families.

On the Relation between the Development of Working Memory Updating and Working Memory Capacity in Preschoolers.

This study aims at investigating the relationship between working memory updating and working memory capacity in preschool children. A sample of 176 preschoolers (36-74 months) was administered a working memory updating task (Magic House) along with three working memory capacity tests that specifically measure their core attentional component (M capacity, as defined in the theory of constructive operators): Backward Word Span, Mr. Cucumber, and Direction Following Task.

Executive Function, Language, and the Toddler's Discovery of Representational Drawing.

Working memory capacity and executive functions play important roles in the early development of drawing and language, but we lack models that specify the relationships among these representational systems and cognitive functions in toddlers. To respond to this need, the present study investigated the relations between drawing and language in very young children, and the role of working memory capacity, inhibition, and shifting in the association between these two representational systems. The participants were 80 children, 25-37 months old.

A working memory span task for toddlers.

This study presents a new working memory measure for toddlers, inspired by the Spin-the-Pots (Hughes & Ensor, 2005), which we modified structuring it as a memory span task. As in the original task, we required toddlers to retrieve objects hidden in little boxes; however, in our Memory Span Spin-the-Pots (MSSP) we used smaller numbers of targets, and we systematically manipulated memory load, covering or not the display, and rotating it or not. Two experiments involved participants between 18 months and three years.