Assesses Executive Functioning skills like working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility in one brief, composite score measure.
Discover New Insights with the MEFS™ App
Use the award-winning MEFS™ App to collect valid and reliable Executive Function data.
Try the award-winning MEFS App™ today!
Discover New Insights with the MEFS™ App
Use the award-winning MEFSTM App to collect valid and reliable Executive Function data.
Child Executive Function Skills Research
Measuring Cognitive Flexibility, Working Memory, and Inhibitory Control Skills
The MEFS App™ provides an efficient and reliable way to directly assess Executive Functioning skills. The ease of use, child engagement, and immediate scoring compared to national norms makes the MEFS App™ ideal for Executive Function research with children. The MEFS App™ can be administered repeatedly to the same child to track changes over time. Existing Executive Function measures developed for research and clinical purposes are lengthy and/or require Ph.D. credentials. Some of these measures are not sensitive across the entire preschool age range. The MEFS App™ is the most reliable Executive Function measure for children as young as 24 months.
Child Executive Functioning Skills Research
Measuring Cognitive Flexibility, Working Memory, and Inhibitory Control Skills
The MEFS App provides an efficient and reliable way to assess Executive Functioning skills directly, including in real-world contexts. The ease of use, high level of child engagement, and automated scoring relative to national norms makes the MEFS App ideal for Executive Function research with children – in the lab, in schools, in the field. The MEFS App can be administered repeatedly to the same individuals, to track changes over time. Existing Executive Function measures developed for research and clinical purposes are lengthy and/or require Ph.D. credentials. Some measures are not sensitive across the entire preschool period, let alone across the lifespan. No comparable Executive Function measure is as reliable starting at 2 years of age.
The Role of Executive Function in a Clinical Setting
Understanding, Measuring, and Improving Executive Functioning Issues
Executive Functioning development is associated with a variety of conditions that affect learning and adaptation, including ADHD, autism, and emotional and behavioral problems. The MEFS App™ is an objective, standardized, and brief assessment that yields reliable and valid information about a child’s Executive Function skills. The MEFS App™ will also track changes in these skills over time. Although the MEFS App™ is not a diagnostic tool, it provides information about a child’s current level of proficiency and growth in Executive Function relative to national norms and a child’s therapeutic goals.
The Role of Executive Function
in a Clinical Setting
Understanding, Measuring, and Improving Executive Functioning Issues
Executive Functioning issues are associated with a variety of conditions that interfere with learning and adaptation, including ADHD, autism, and emotional and behavioral problems. The MEFS App is an objective, standardized, and brief screening that yields timely information about a child’s Executive Function skills like working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control; as well as changes in these skills over time. Although the MEFS App is not a diagnostic tool, it provides reliable and valid information about a child’s current level of proficiency and growth in Executive Function relative to norms and therapeutic goals.
Validity of the MEFS App
The MEFS App™ is highly correlated with other Executive Function assessments including the NIH Toolbox Battery of Executive Function Measures, Executive Function Touch Battery, and the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task. The MEFS App™ is briefer than any other measure; designed for a younger/less advantaged starting point; more sensitive to gradual changes; and normed starting at 24 months of age. The MEFS App™ is the only Executive Function measure supported by training, professional development, intervention activities, and data analytics based on over 100,000 test results.
The MEFS App is not strongly correlated with IQ, and it predicts outcomes over and above IQ, suggesting it is measuring a distinct construct.
The MEFS App™ has high concurrent correlations with Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, a widely used school readiness assessment.The MEFS App™ has been shown to predict kindergarten reading level and first grade math achievement. In one recent longitudinal study, the MEFS App™ utilized in pre-K predicted 3rd grade reading and math performance on the MAP assessment delivered by NWEA.
Children known to have difficulty with Executive Function perform more poorly on the MEFS App (e.g. socioeconomic disadvantage, ADHD-symptoms).
Validity of the MEFS App
Assesses Executive Functioning skills like working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility in one brief, composite score measure.
High correlations with other Executive Function assessments including the NIH Toolbox Battery of Executive Function Measures, Executive Function Touch Battery, and the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, yet is briefer than any other measure; designed for a younger/less advantaged starting point; more sensitive to gradual changes; normed down to age 2; and the only Executive Function measure supported by training, professional development, intervention, and data analytics based on over 55,000 (and growing) test results.
The MEFS App is not strongly correlated with IQ, suggesting it is measuring a distinct construct.
High concurrent correlations with Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, a widely used school readiness assessment; outperforms other Executive Function measures; predicts kindergarten reading level and first grade math achievement.
Children known to have difficulty with Executive Function perform more poorly on the MEFS App (e.g. socioeconomic disadvantage, ADHD-symptoms).
Reliability of the MEFS App
Re-test reliability is consistently very high (greater than .90).
Pre-screening helps determine who can benefit most from EF guidance
Measuring EF over time shows efficacy of teaching and curriculum
Quick feedback provides data on efficacy of activities
Early activity is critical to help prevent children from falling behind
The MEFS App Technical Report
Explore the MEFS Technical Report on performance outcomes, the 2019 updated norming sample, reliability, validity, correlations, case studies, and more.
The MEFS Growth Charts (monthly and half-yearly versions) are based on our 2019 youth norms.
The MEFS App Technical Report
Explore the MEFS Technical Report on performance outcomes, the 2019 updated norming sample, reliability, validity, correlations, case studies, and more.
The MEFS Growth Charts (monthly and half-yearly versions) are based on our 2019 youth norms.
Researcher Spotlight
Dr. Jolene Johnson
Associate Director and Assistant Professor
Department of Education and Child Development
Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Q: What is UNMC’s mission?
A: The mission of our department is to serve families, schools and students through providing program evaluation, professional development and clinical services. Of primary focus is to reach students with multiple obstacles to learning.
Q: Why focus on Executive Function (EF) in your research?
A: Executive function skills are important to academic achievement. By focusing on executive function skills in early childhood settings more students are likely to enter kindergarten with skills setting them up for success. Helping teachers be intentional about noticing and integrating opportunities for students to practice has been key to some of our professional development offerings.
Q: What is your research group working on now?
A: Currently, our focus is on delivery of professional development around social-emotional learning, mindfulness strategies and executive function activities for early childhood teachers across thirteen national sites and evaluating the impact that has on students’ executive function skills. We are two years into a three-year project and hope to examine the relationships between student executive function scores, language scores, teacher burnout and classroom quality.
Q: Why do you use the MEFS App?
A: The MEFS App is a direct assessment of students’ executive function skills. It is a time-efficient and cost-effective measure that can be used with young children and allows for teachers to track student growth.
Researcher Spotlight
Dr. Panayiota (Pani) Kendeou
Guy Bond Chair in Reading and Associate Professor
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
Q: What is the Reading and Language Lab’s mission?
A: The primary questions addressed in the Reading and Language Lab concern the relations amongst language and memory, with a focus on understanding and improving learning during reading. In addition to these core issues, the lab is also involved with the development and application of technology-based interventions and assessments.
Q: What is the lab working on now?
A: We’re working to develop Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) tools within a multi-tiered systems of support framework to: (a) Prevent language comprehension difficulties for kindergartners (Project ELCII) and (b) Provide an intervention for children who have comprehension difficulties in Gr. 1-2 (Project TeLCI).
Our preventative instruction and intervention ITSs focus on inference making skills because the ability to make inferences is the underlying process that supports the construction of coherent representations and inferences can be made in both reading and non-reading situations.
Q: Why the MEFS App?
A: An important mediator between the proximal outcomes of our intervention (inference making) and the distal outcomes (reading comprehension) is executive functions. We found that MEFS allows for an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective assessment of children’s’ executive functions in our studies.
Tools for Researchers
In this new Institute of Education Sciences paper, Reflection Sciences, Inc. Co-founder Dr. Phil Zelazo and Co-authors Clancy B. Blair and Michael T. Willoughby highlight key findings on executive function in relation to its relevance in educational research and practice. Read the full article here.
The CSUS is a validated caregiver-report measure of children’s developing understanding of the mind and mental states of others, such as what other people perceive, think, and feel. This awareness grows throughout childhood, and is highly correlated with executive function (EF) (e.g., Carlson & Moses, 2001; Devine & Hughes, 2014). With stronger EF skills, children are better able to see things from another person’s perspective, as well as their own. Together, EF and social understanding provide a foundation for successful social interactions and conflict resolution.
Download the Long CSUS Form.
Download the Short CSUS Form.
The DEFSS is a standardized set of photographic stimuli, including both child and adult faces, that has been validated by participants across a range of ages. It consists of 404 validated facial photographs of people between 8 and 30 years old displaying five different emotional expressions: happy, angry, fearful, sad, and neutral.
Download the DEFSS Files.
Tools for Researchers
In this new Institute of Education Sciences paper, Reflection Sciences, Inc. Co-founder Dr. Phil Zelazo and Co-authors Clancy B. Blair and Michael T. Willoughby highlight key findings on executive function in relation to its relevance in educational research and practice. Read the full article here.
The CSUS is a validated caregiver-report measure of children’s developing understanding of the mind and mental states of others, such as what other people perceive, think, and feel. This awareness grows throughout childhood, and is highly correlated with executive function (EF) (e.g., Carlson & Moses, 2001; Devine & Hughes, 2014). With stronger EF skills, children are better able to see things from another person’s perspective, as well as their own. Together, EF and social understanding provide a foundation for successful social interactions and conflict resolution.
Download the Long CSUS Form.
Download the Short CSUS Form.
The DEFSS is a standardized set of photographic stimuli, including both child and adult faces, that has been validated by participants across a range of ages. It consists of 404 validated facial photographs of people between 8 and 30 years old displaying five different emotional expressions: happy, angry, fearful, sad, and neutral.
Download the DEFSS Files.
The research literature clearly points to the critical role that early Executive Function plays in children’s academic and social success, so we need to make sure the study effectively captures children’s skills in this area. The MEFS App combines the strength of a trusted measure of Executive Function with the power of big data, allowing us to view the findings from our study within the context of the thousands of other children who have used the app.”
– Stephanie Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Real World Reviews
The research literature clearly points to the critical role that early Executive Function plays in children’s academic and social success, so we need to make sure the study effectively captures children’s skills in this area. The MEFS App combines the strength of a trusted measure of Executive Function with the power of big data, allowing us to view the findings from our study within the context of the thousands of other children who have used the app.”
-Stephanie Jones, Ph.D., Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education