Executive functioning skills in early childhood children with autism, intellectual disability, and co-occurring autism and intellectual disability

Abstract

Background: Many children with autism and intellectual disability (ID) experience executive functioning (EF) difficulties. However, there is minimal research on EF skills in children with autism, ID, and co-occurring autism/ID in early childhood.

Aims: To address this gap in the research, we evaluated EF profiles using the BRIEF-P among early childhood children (2-5 years of age) with autism, ID, and co-occurring autism/ID.

Method and procedures: Participants in the current study were 87 children between the ages of 24 and 71 months (M = 46.8, SD = 12.7) diagnosed with autism (n = 24, 27.6 %), ID (n = 23, 26.4 %), or co-occurring autism/ID (n = 40, 46.0 %) that completed a comprehensive psychological evaluation at a university development center. We used a mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and between- and within-subjects ANOVAs as follow-up analyses.

Outcomes and results: Results suggested that early childhood children with autism, ID, and autism/ID may have unique EF skill profiles. Children with ID exhibited the most significant EF impairments and children with autism had the least. Working memory was the most impaired EF domain across all diagnostic groups.

Conclusions and implications: Overall, our findings show that early childhood children with autism, ID, and autism/ID exhibit difficulties in EF skills. Children with ID exhibit the most significant EF impairments whereas children with autism show the least. However, regardless of diagnosis, working memory is the most impaired EF skill.

Keywords: Autism; Autism spectrum disorder; Co-occurring ASD/ID; Early childhood; Executive functioning; Intellectual disability.