Executive Functions in children of 9 and 12 years old in Montessori Method

We emphasize the importance of the executive functions from an early age and how they keep developing throughout childhood.The study’s main objective is to study the correlation between the time students have been in a Montessori school and sexes, with the executive functions. As for the more specific objectives, we consider the assessment of the executive functions in a Montessori school and to determine the level of the executive functions in students. This work, outlines the evaluation of neuropsycological development and the executive functions in a group of boys and girls from CCE Montessori Palau Girona school. To this end, the administration of the test ENFEN (Portellano et al. 2009) and CUMANES (Portellanoet al.2012) has been conducted and we have focused on two sub-tests from each one. Together, we have evaluated a total of 30 primary school pupils aged 9 and 12. From the results, we have analyzed the strong and weak points, and a proposal for intervention from them has been made so they can serve as a basis for the future. No differences in the results of the executive functions evaluated have been observed between the sexes but within the different ages there have been differences. It was observed that for most of the executive functions a positive slope, although not significant, between the time the students enrolled in the Montessori methodology and a higher positive score in the executive functions, being more significant with the youngest, 9 year olds. A greater significance in males versus females was also observed. In conclusion, no differences were found in the executive functions of students respect to sexes but a higher score in the executive functions related to a longer period of time enrolled in the Montessori methodology was observed.