Assessment of executive function in young children with and without ASD using parent ratings and computerized tasks of executive function

Gardiner, Emily; Hutchison, Sarah M; Müller, Ulrich; Kerns, Kimberly A.; Iarocci, Grace

doi:10.1080/13854046.2017.1290139

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…In addition to social-communicative deficits and repetitive/restricted behaviors and interests, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have executive functioning (EF) impairments ( Hill, 2004 ; Russo et al, 2007 ; Kenworthy et al, 2008 ; Bramham et al, 2009 ; Gardiner et al, 2017 ). EF is higher-order cognitive processes that regulate goal-directed behavior by enabling individuals to disengage from the immediate context for the coordination and execution of future goals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Examination of Everyday Executive Functioning in Children With ASD: Relations With Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning Over Time

et al. 2018

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Executive functioning (EF) deficits are well-documented in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), yet little is known about the longitudinal trajectory of “everyday” EF and links to social, emotional and behavioral outcomes in ASD. This study examined the profile of everyday EF utilizing parent-reported measures over 2 years, and explored whether prior estimates of EF were related to later co-morbid psychopathology and social functioning in 39 children with ASD and 34 typically developing (TD) children (ages 7–14 years). According to parent reports, children with ASD had impaired scores of EF in all domains at both time points, and showed no significant improvement across 2 years, compared to controls. Regression analyses showed that prior estimates of behavior regulation difficulties at time 1 uniquely predicted later emotional (i.e., symptoms of anxiety/depression) and behavioral (i.e., oppositionality/aggressiveness) problems in children with ASD 2 years later. Furthermore, an improvement of metacognitive skills predicted a reduction of social difficulties over 2 years in ASD. These results imply that EF may be a potential target of intervention for preventing and reducing co-morbid psychopathology and promoting social competence in youth with ASD. Furthermore, the findings that EF related to behavior is more critical for later emotional and behavioral functioning, whereas EF related to cognition is more critical for social functioning, indicates that it may be beneficial to tailor treatment. Future studies investigating the effectiveness of EF-based interventions in improving the cognitive, psychological and social outcomes in ASD are of high priority.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal Examination of Everyday Executive Functioning in Children With ASD: Relations With Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning Over Time

et al. 2018

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“…Although neuropsychological or performance‐based measures provide good indicators of the fundamental cognitive components of EF at the level of individual constructs (e.g., working memory, inhibition, etc. ), these traditional performance‐based tests are not always predictive of real‐world abilities [Burgess et al, ; Gardiner, Hutchison, Müller, Kerns, & Iarocci, ; Toplak, West, & Stanovich, ]. In contrast to performance‐based EF tasks, in which children solve problems in highly structured settings where the demands are clear and distractions are limited, ratings of EF in real‐life settings assess how well children are able to interpret competing social information, discern between information that is relevant and distracting, and flexibly shift from one activity to the next.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everyday executive function predicts adaptive and internalizing behavior among children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Gardiner

Iarocci

2017

Autism Research

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We examined whether parents' ratings of their children's flexibility and ability to monitor their behavior predicted adaptive skills (e.g., ability to complete day-to-day personal tasks, communicate, and socialize) and symptoms of anxiety and depression among children with and without autism spectrum disorder. For both groups, children's abilities to manage and monitor their behavior were strongly related to adaptive skills. Children's flexibility and ability to inhibit inappropriate behavior and control their emotions was associated with depression symptoms for both groups.

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“…In addition, the profile marked by severe overall EF problems may be more related to the severity and chronicity of psychiatric symptoms than to any specific symptom type per se [34]. Similar EF problems have previously been indicated in children with both inattentiveness and hyperactivity [57] as well as autism spectrum problems [60,61], and in comorbid groups [43].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Heterogeneity of executive functions among preschool children with psychiatric symptoms

Teivaanmäki

Huhdanpää

Kiuru

et al. 2019

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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The aim of the present study was to investigate associations between internalizing and externalizing symptoms and deficits in executive functions (EF) as well as to examine the overall heterogeneity of EFs in a sample of preschool children attending a psychiatric clinic (n = 171). First, based on cutoff points signifying clinical levels of impairment on the parent-completed Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), children were assigned into groups of internalizing, externalizing, combined or mild symptoms and compared to a reference group (n = 667) with regard to day care teacher ratings of EFs on the Attention and Executive Function Rating Inventory-Preschool (ATTEX-P). Second, latent profile analysis (LPA) was employed to identify distinct subgroups of children representing different EF profiles with unique strengths and weaknesses in EFs. The first set of analyses indicated that all symptom groups had more difficulties in EFs than the reference group did, and the internalizing group had less inhibition-related problems than the other symptom groups did. Using LPA, five EF profiles were identified: average, weak average, attentional problems, inhibitory problems, and overall problems. The EF profiles were significantly associated with gender, maternal education level, and psychiatric symptom type. Overall, the findings suggest that the comparison of means of internalizing and externalizing groups mainly captures the fairly obvious differences in inhibition-related domains among young psychiatric outpatient children, whereas the person-oriented approach, based on individual differences, identifies heterogeneity related to attentional functions, planning, and initiating one's action. The variability in EF difficulties suggests that a comprehensive evaluation of a child's EF profile is important regardless of the type of psychiatric symptoms the child presents with.

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Assessment of executive function in young children with and without ASD using parent ratings and computerized tasks of executive function

Cited by 33 publications

References 77 publications

Longitudinal Examination of Everyday Executive Functioning in Children With ASD: Relations With Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning Over Time

Longitudinal Examination of Everyday Executive Functioning in Children With ASD: Relations With Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning Over Time

Everyday executive function predicts adaptive and internalizing behavior among children with and without autism spectrum disorder

Heterogeneity of executive functions among preschool children with psychiatric symptoms

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