Hwajin
Yang is Associate Professor of Psychology in the School of Social Sciences at
Singapore Management University.
She
has established a strong research programme that is guided by one overarching
question - How does our everyday experience contribute to the regulation of
Executive Functions (EF)? Executive Functions are consider the foundation of
human capital, it influence many aspects of our lives - psychological
well-being, decision-making, adaptive behaviours, mental health and academic
success.
Faculty profile: https://socsc.smu.edu.sg/faculty/profile/56491/YANG-Hwajin
As Executive Functions is malleable,
it is important for us to help train young children in their early childhood, especially
when they are critical cognitive skills for success in life. In this video, Professor Hwajin shares
with us how Executive Functions carries fundamental implications for adaptive
cognitive functioning and integrative cognitive capacity in young children. Her research areas covers the theoretical and empirical
investigations of a wide range of linguistic functions including how
bilingualism helps activate two linguistic systems and how
bilingualism can help improve mathematical reasoning and emergent numeracy
skills.
She also discuss about how the overused of mobile phones may contribute
to a negative emotional impact on young children and how parents and teachers
can play their part to change the sociocultural norms which can help in their young
children’s Executive Functions developments.