Interest inmeasuring executive function skills in young children in lowand
middle-income country contexts has been stymied by the lack of
assessments that are both easy to deploy and scalable. This study
reports on an initial effort to develop a tablet-based battery of executive
function tasks, which were designed and extensively studied in
the United States, for use in Kenya. Participants were 193 children, aged
3–6 years old, who attended early childhood development and
education centers. The rates of individual task completion were high
(65–100%), and 85% of children completed three or more tasks.
Assessors indicated that 90% of all task administrations were of acceptable
quality. An executive function composite score was approximately
normally distributed, despite higher-than-expected floor and
ceiling effects on inhibitory control tasks. Children’s simple reaction
time (β = –0.20, p = .004), attention-related behaviors during testing
(β = 0.24, p = .0005), and age (β = –0.24, p = .0009) were all uniquely
related to performance on the executive function composite. Results
are discussed as they inform efforts to develop valid and reliable
measures of executive function skills among young children in developing
country contexts.