Executive Function in Autism: Association with ADHD and ASD Symptoms.
Rachel R Lee, Anthony R Ward, David M Lane and 4 others
PMID 33515417WHAT IT FOUND
In children with autism, executive function problems tracked with ADHD severity, not autism severity.
Flexibility and emotional control were unrelated to either diagnosis. This suggests ADHD symptoms, not autism itself, drive most observed executive function deficits.
Key findings
01ADHD symptom severity predicted deficits in most executive function areas, whereas autism severity did not.
02Executive function scores for Shift (flexibility) and Emotional Control were not predicted by either ADHD or autism severity.
03Teacher ratings showed that higher ADHD severity predicted poorer organization of materials, a link not seen in parent ratings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study only included children with an IQ of 70 or higher, so results do not apply to children with autism and intellectual disability. The sample was mostly male and largely Caucasian, limiting generalizability to other genders and ethnic groups. The study was cross-sectional, so it shows association but not causation. It was difficult to recruit children with autism who did not have ADHD, so the group with autism alone was very small, making it hard to separate the effects of the two conditions purely by diagnosis. All executive function data came from parent and teacher ratings, which may be influenced by the raters' perceptions rather than objective performance.
Declared interests
The text does not state any funding sources or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that all executive function deficits in children with autism are caused by autism itself. This study found that most deficits were linked to ADHD severity, and that flexibility and emotional control problems were not linked to either diagnosis.