No abstract

The developmental sequence of attention and executive functions (EFs) was studied by utilizing normative data from four hundred 3- through 12-year-old Finnish children. Data from 10 subtests measuring impulse control and inhibition of irrelevant responses, auditory and visual attention, visual search, planning, and verbal and visual fluency were included. The development proceeded sequentially, from motor inhibition and impulse control to functions of selective and sustained attention, and finally to EFs of fluency. Significant relations between gender and development and between parent education and development were found in several subtests. In a factor analysis, inhibition, auditory attention, visual attention, and the EF of fluency clustered into separate factors. The developmental staging and clustering of functions suggests that, although inhibition, attention, and EFs are highly interrelated cognitive functions, their developmental sequences are separate from one another. The development of basic inhibitory functions precedes the development of more complex functions of selective attention, and EFs continue to develop into adolescence.

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This paper describes the development of a new parent questionnaire ("Five to Fifteen", or the FTF) for elicitation of symptoms and problems typical of ADHD and its comorbidities. The FTF comprises 181 statements related to behavioural or developmental problems that can be endorsed as either "does not apply" (0), applies sometimes or to some extent" (1), "definitely applies" (2), plus a number of open-ended questions including some about the child's strengths. The items are arranged into eight different domains (memory, learning, language, executive functions, motor skills, perception, social skills, and emotional/behavioural problems), most of which can be subdivided into subdomains. For each domain, a mean score ranging from 0-2 can be calculated. A representative sample (n=1350) of the total population of 6-15-year-old children was targeted. Parents of 63% of these completed a questionnaire and returned it to the researchers. Boys showed significantly more problems than did girls across domains and age. Younger children had more problems than pre-adolescents and adolescents (except in the domains of social skills and emotional/behavioural problems). Executive dysfunction was common, and 5.3% of all children in the population had clear problems suggesting a diagnosis of ADHD according to parent report. The paper provides means, medians, and 90(th) and 95(th) centiles for individual items as well as for the eight domains. The Discussion centres on whether or not the FTF can (or should) be used in school-aged children for the identification of children at risk for ADHD or other early childhood onset neuropsychiatric disorder.