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Promoting Resilience Through Executive Function Training for Homeless and Highly Mobile Preschoolers

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Resilience Interventions for Youth in Diverse Populations

Part of the book series: The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality ((SSHE))

Abstract

Resilience is a dynamic, multifaceted, and inferential concept that refers generally to the capacity of a system for successful adaptation in the context of significant adversity or challenges. In human development, positive adaptation can be defined broadly in terms of function in many domains (e.g., doing well in all the ways expected for a person of a given age, culture, and time in history, including physical, mental, social, school, or work expectations) or more narrowly in a single domain (e.g., academic achievement or getting along with peers). In this chapter we describe a new intervention program designed to foster school readiness in homeless and highly mobile (HHM) children, with the goal of promoting their academic resilience. We hope to foster resilience in these children by promoting their executive function (EF) skills during the preschool period, which is believed to be an important window of opportunity for growth and change in the neurocognitive processes that support learning and school readiness.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are deeply grateful to all the families who participated in this translational research program and to all our community collaborators. A special thanks to Terese Haggerty-Lueck, Elizabeth Hinz, Margo Hurrle, Angela Kimball, Laurie Ostertag, Kelly Rogers, Nichol Siedow, and Markeyda Smith. The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A110528 to the University of Minnesota. Preparation of this chapter also was supported by a University of Minnesota Center for Cognitive Sciences Fellowship award to Casey. Preliminary research and development was supported by the Sauer Children’s Renew Foundation through an award to People Serving People. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of IES, the U.S. Department of Education, or other funders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Erin C. Casey, Megan Finsaas, Stephanie M. Carlson, Philip David Zelazo, Barbara Murphy, Frances Durkin, Marie Lister & Ann S. Masten

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  1. Erin C. Casey
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  2. Megan Finsaas
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  3. Stephanie M. Carlson
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  4. Philip David Zelazo
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  5. Barbara Murphy
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  6. Frances Durkin
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  7. Marie Lister
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  8. Ann S. Masten
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Correspondence to Erin C. Casey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Resiliency Institute of Allenhurst, LLC., W. Allenhurst, New Jersey, USA

    Sandra Prince-Embury

  2. Dept. Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada

    Donald H. Saklofske

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Casey, E.C. et al. (2014). Promoting Resilience Through Executive Function Training for Homeless and Highly Mobile Preschoolers. In: Prince-Embury, S., Saklofske, D. (eds) Resilience Interventions for Youth in Diverse Populations. The Springer Series on Human Exceptionality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0542-3_7

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