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Age Related Differences of Executive Functioning Problems in Everyday Life of Children and Adolescents in the Autism Spectrum

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Abstract

Numerous studies investigated executive functioning (EF) problems in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using laboratory EF tasks. As laboratory task performances often differ from real life observations, the current study focused on EF in everyday life of 118 children and adolescents with ASD (6–18 years). We investigated age-related and individual differences in EF problems as reported by parents on the Behavioral Rating Inventory Executive Functions (BRIEF: Gioia et al. in Behavior rating inventory of executive function. Psychological Assessment Resources, Odesse 2000), and examined the association with autism severity. Inhibition problems were mostly found in the youngest group (6- to 8-year-olds), whereas problems with planning where more evident for 12- to 14-year-olds as compared to 9- to 11-year-olds. In a subsample of participants meeting the ADOS ASD cut-off criteria the age related differences in planning were absent, while problems with cognitive flexibility were less apparent in 15- to 18-year-olds, compared to 9- to 11-, and 12- to 14-year olds. EF problems surpassing the clinical cutoff were only observed in 20 % (planning) to 51 % (cognitive flexibility) of the children and adolescents, and no relation was found with ASD symptom severity. This underlines the heterogeneous nature of ASD.

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Notes

  1. For this restricted planning scale we eliminated all questions with the words “homework”, “task”, or “assignment” in the in Dutch translated descriptions, F (3,112) = 1.19, p = .32.

  2. Relations ADOS severity score: SRS index score, r = .07; inhibition, r = .49; working memory, r = .39; shift, r = .86; and planning, r = .56. Data can be obtained from the first author.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partly funded as part of the research program “Autism and Aging: A Double Jeopardy”, which is financed (personal VIDI grant HM Geurts, No. 452-10-003) by NWO, and was partly financially supported by Stichting Nuts Ohra [SNO-T-0701-116]. The authors would like to thank all children, adolescents, parents and teachers of the Berg en Boschschool who took part in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autism Clinic, Research and Development, Dr. Leo Kannerhuis, Houtsniplaan 1, 6865 XZ, Doorwerth, The Netherlands

    Sanne F. W. M. van den Bergh & Hilde M. Geurts

  2. Department of Psychology, Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sanne F. W. M. van den Bergh & Hilde M. Geurts

  3. Dutch Autism and ADHD Research Center (d’Arc), Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Sanne F. W. M. van den Bergh & Hilde M. Geurts

  4. Department of Developmental Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anke M. Scheeren, Sander Begeer & Hans M. Koot

  5. Autism Research Amsterdam (ARA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anke M. Scheeren, Sander Begeer & Hans M. Koot

  6. EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Anke M. Scheeren, Sander Begeer & Hans M. Koot

  7. School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Brennan MacCallum Building (A18), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Sander Begeer

  8. Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, 1018 WS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Hilde M. Geurts

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van den Bergh, S.F.W.M., Scheeren, A.M., Begeer, S. et al. Age Related Differences of Executive Functioning Problems in Everyday Life of Children and Adolescents in the Autism Spectrum. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1959–1971 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2071-4

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