Behavioral and Neuropsychological Evaluation of Executive Functions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Gulf Region

Rehab H Alsaedi; Suzanne Carrington; James J Watters

doi:10.3390/brainsci10020120

Behavioral and Neuropsychological Evaluation of Executive Functions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Gulf Region

Brain Sci. 2020 Feb 22;10(2):120. doi: 10.3390/brainsci10020120.

Authors

Rehab H Alsaedi^{1

2}, Suzanne Carrington¹, James J Watters¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane, QLD 4059, Australia.
² The Department of Special Education, Taibah University, Janadah Bin Umayyah Road, Madinah 41477, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

This study examined the executive functioning abilities and development profiles of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The participants were 119 children with ASD and 30 typically developing children (age range: 6-12 years) who were recruited from three Gulf states. The findings revealed executive functioning deficits in the ASD population when compared to the normative data or to those children without ASD. However, not all the forms of executive functioning were found to be impaired. Age-related differences in the patterns of performance on the utilized measures of executive functioning were also identified. The overall findings provide valuable information regarding the different components of the executive functions, which may prove useful in relation to the development of assessment protocols for ASD.

Keywords: Autism; BRIEF-2; CANTAB; Executive functions; Gulf.