The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function and Continuous Performance Test in Preschoolers with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to examine performance-based measures and behavioral ratings of executive functions (EF) as a component of preschool attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).MethodsTwenty-one 4-to-6-year-old children with ADHD and 52 children with no psychopathology, matched on age, gender, socioeconomic status, and parental education, were enrolled. Parents were interviewed with the use of The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children Present and Lifetime version. The Conners' Kiddie Continuous Performance Test (K-CPT) was administered to the children, and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool version (BRIEF-P) and the Conners' Parent Rating Scale-Revised/Short Form (CPRS-R/S) were filled out by the parents.ResultsAll BRIEF-P and CPRS-R/S scores, the K-CPT measures of inattention and impulsivity were higher in the ADHD group. The CPRS-R/S ADHD index was strongly correlated with inhibition and related indexes in the BRIEF-P and was moderately correlated with inattention measures in the K-CPT.ConclusionThe current study is one of the few to investigate the features of preschool ADHD with the use of behavioral ratings of EF and a performance-based measure. Our results suggest that the BRIEF-P was able to identify behavioral difficulties in inhibition and working memory and that the K-CPT identified difficulties indicating inattention. The findings of this study support the use of a combination of methods for a complete evaluation of preschoolers with inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behavior, the application of rating scales for screening ADHD symptoms, and the measurement of behavioral correlates of EF, along with performance-based measures.

Does ADHD worsen inhibitory control in preschool children born very premature and/or with very low birth weight?

“…11 Preschool children with ADHD tend to perform significantly worse in inhibitory control tasks and inventories, when compared to those without the disorder. [12][13][14] Although ADHD is a prevalent disorder in children born prematurely and/or at very low birth weight, only one study has compared preterm children with and without ADHD using a neuropsychological task. Both neurophysiological and neuropsychological tasks were used, and inhibitory impairments and reaction time variability were only found in preterm and term children with ADHD.…”

Computer-based cognitive remediation program for the treatment of behavioral problems in children with intellectual disability: the «COGNITUS & MOI» study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…Indeed, specific cognitive profiles - especially memory, attentional, visuospatial and executive deficits - are well documented in children with ID [ 8 – 10 ]. Impairment of these functions has been related to psychiatric and more generally to behavioral problems in other medical conditions [ 11 , 12 ]. Moreover, attentional and visuospatial skills must underlie social cognition abilities, especially facial emotion recognition [ 13 ].…”

Laterality of the frontal aslant tract (FAT) explains externalizing behaviors through its association with executive function

“…For example, Barkley and colleagues (Barkley & Fischer, 2011;Barkley & Murphy, 2010) found that ratings of executive function can sometimes be a better predictor of everyday impairment than laboratory tests of executive function. Rating scales are also effective with preschool children and perform as well as laboratory tasks, such as continuous performance tasks, at differentiating children with ADHD from typical children (Cak, Cengel Kultur, Gokler, Oktem, & Taskiran, 2017). Thus, while future research should incorporate laboratory tasks, it does not discount the utility of the results we report here.…”