Date Presented 03/28/20
The CKTA is an established, performance-based assessment measuring children’s executive function (EF) through a functional, kid-friendly playdough task. Task novelty is essential to assess EF. New tasks are needed to assess and document change in EF following treatment. Two tasks (mug cake and chocolate popcorn) were developed and compared to the standard playdough task to determine parallel forms reliability. Scores were consistently high on the two new tasks.
Primary Author and Speaker: McKenzie Rowley
Additional Authors and Speakers: Elizabeth Larson, John Newlon, Daniel Hurwitz
PURPOSE: Executive function (EF) is a set of cognitive processes that impacts a child’s ability to self-monitor and self-regulate in support of purposeful, goal-directed and problem-solving behavior. The most commonly used assessment tools that measure EF in children do not include direct observation of age-appropriate, functional tasks. To address this gap, the Children’s Kitchen Task Assessment (CKTA) provides evaluators with the chance to observe children performing a recipe task using familiar items. However, because the CKTA includes only one task (playdough), it ideally cannot be used to measure changes in EF since task novelty is essential to assessment of EF. Thus, there is a need for more tasks to enable therapists to document outcomes of interventions targeting EF. To address this issue, two new tasks, chocolate popcorn and mug cake, have been developed. The present study examined the parallelism of all three tasks to determine if the new tasks may be implemented as valid additions to the CKTA set of tasks.
DESIGN: The current study utilized a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design to determine if there was adequate parallel forms reliability between the three tasks of the CKTA.
PARTICIPANTS: This convenience sample of eleven children (7-10 years; 55% female/45% male; & 45% African American & 55% Caucasian) were recruited through local afterschool programs. The primary study inclusion criteria were age (7-12 years), child assent, and parental consent to participate. Data on demographics, previous cooking experience, and basic reading ability were gathered, but children were not excluded based on this information, nor due to disability.
METHOD: Children were assessed on the three tasks presented in random order at their afterschool sites. Children’s performance on the tasks was assessed via the number & level of cue needed for successful completion of each recipe step (fewer cues = higher EF). Each child’s performance was videotaped & rated by a second rater. The average of the two scores was calculated & converted into a percentage score (since tasks had slightly different number of steps in the recipes). The data was analyzed using a spearman’s rho correlation to determine the relationship between individual participant scores on the mug cake & chocolate popcorn tasks compared to the established playdough task. Follow up analysis using spearman’s correlations examined order effects and age impacts on CKTA scores.
RESULTS: Participants’ scores were consistently high, with scores ranging from 96.5 – 100 percent, suggesting a high level of EF. A positive correlation was found between the scores on the mug cake and playdough task, rs
(9) = +.387, p = .24, (R2
= .150). A strong, negative correlation was found between scores on the chocolate popcorn task and the playdough task, rs
(8) = -.679, p = .03, (R2
= .460).
CONCLUSION: Overall, performance was high on the 2 new tasks. The relatively small sample size & narrow range of scores likely contributed to lack of significant association between mug cake and playdough scores, and negative correlation between chocolate popcorn and playdough scores. No order effects were noted. This study effectively recruited diverse participants. However, research with a larger sample size and with children with a range of EF functioning skills (younger children or children with known EF deficits) is needed.
IMPACT STATEMENT: The CKTA is a functional and kid-friendly measure to assess children’s executive functioning. It provides information on how children plan, pay attention to, carry out, and comprehend tasks. It is useful in designing EF occupational therapy interventions. The development of two new CKTA tasks will allow for pre- and post- testing of executive function in clinical settings.
References
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135-168. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750.
Rocke, K., Hays, P., Edwards, D., & Berg, C. (2008). Development of a performance assessment of executive function: The Children’s Kitchen Task Assessment. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 62, 528–537. doi:10.5014/ajot.62.5.528
