Reliability of Informant-Report Measures of Executive Functioning in Children With Down Syndrome.
Anna J Esbensen, Emily K Hoffman, Rebecca Shaffer and 3 others
PMID 31026204WHAT IT FOUND
Many school-age children with Down syndrome were rated by parents and teachers as having clinically concerning executive functioning, especially working memory and monitoring.
Their ratings did not agree strongly, so home and school views are both useful.
Key findings
01Most parent and teacher BRIEF subscale and index scores were consistent within each form.
02Parent and teacher ratings agreed only poor to moderate on executive functioning scores.
03Teacher ratings flagged the Global Executive Composite as clinically concerning for 71.7% of children, compared with 41.4% on parent ratings.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study did not test whether scores stay the same over time or whether they match other measures of executive functioning. Many comparisons were made without correcting for false positives, so some gender, age, and IQ differences may be chance. Teacher forms were missing for some children, and IQ was measured with different tests then split at a median of 42. The sample came from clinic and community studies, not a random sample. The BRIEF was normed on typically developing children, not specifically on children with Down syndrome.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not include a conflicts-of-interest declaration. The paper is tagged as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read a high BRIEF score as proof that a child has a specific executive function deficit. The study did not test retest reliability or compare the scores with other executive function measures, and parent and teacher agreement was poor to moderate.