Neuro-cognitive trajectories of language and executive functioning CO-developmentin early childhood

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded the University of Maryland, College Park $149,190 on February 1, 2026, under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865) to conduct a longitudinal study of bidirectional associations between language and executive functioning development in early childhood.

The research characterizes how language and executive functioning co-develop behaviorally across the preschool years and examines bidirectional neural developmental trajectories using multidimensional assessments. The study addresses a critical gap in the literature by longitudinally examining how individual variation in children's early language environments relates to growth in language and executive functioning skills both behaviorally and neurocognitively, with implications for targeted interventions during the sensitive early childhood period when brain development is most malleable.

Performance occurs in College Park, Maryland with a period of performance ending July 24, 2028. The University of Maryland, College Park administers the award through its Office of Research Administration & Advancement.

Abstract

Language and executive functioning (EF) are core cognitive skills that provide a foundation for children's academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Both language and EF CO-develop in early childhood, and are supported by overlapping cortical brain networks in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that undergo protracted and critical maturation during this time. Despite abundant, mostly cross-sectional, evidence on language skills scaffolding EF and vice versa, no study has longitudinally examined early language-EF bidirectional behavioral and neural developmental trajectories using multidimensional assessments. This is a critical GAP since understanding how language and EF CO-develop and CO-support each other in early childhood might provide a crucial insight into how they scaffold each other behaviorally with downstream implications for more fine- grained, targeted, and individualized interventions for young children whose brains are the most malleable to changes during this sensitive period. Additionally, extensive (i.e., similarly, cross-sectional) research demonstrates the integral role of individual differences in children's early language environments in shaping their language and EF skills at various points across preschool years. However, there is no study, to date, examining how individual variation in children's early experiences relates to growth in their language and EF skills longitudinally, both behaviorally and neurocognitively. Therefore, this project will allow for the comprehensive examination of these gaps by involving training from an interdisciplinary mentorship team with expertise in each domain of interest to promote my training throughout the proposal. Specifically, I propose to: (aim 1) characterize bidirectional associations between early language and EF behaviorally across preschool years; (aim 2) examine bidirectional relationships between neural activation underlying early language and EF CO-development; (aim 3) determine whether and how individual variation in children's early language experiences relates to their language and EF developmental trajectories both behaviorally and neurocognitively across early childhood. The data collection for these proposed aims is ongoing such that data for time 1 is on track to be complete by the grant start date (september 2025), and data for time 2 will be ~50% complete by the grant start date and fully collected by the end of year 1 of the grant period (end of summer 2026). Through the outlined training activities and support from my collaborators, I will gain the necessary knowledge and skills that will allow me to continue examining how preschoolers' early linguistic environments shape their language and cognitive developmental trajectories to maximally inform early interventions that support children's academic success and well-being.