title: Strengths and weaknesses in executive functioning in children with intellectual disability.
abstract: Children with intellectual disability (ID) were given a comprehensive range of executive functioning measures, which systematically varied in terms of verbal and non-verbal demands. Their performance was compared to the performance of groups matched on mental age (MA) and chronological age (CA), respectively. Twenty-two children were included in each group. Children with ID performed on par with the MA group on switching, verbal executive-loaded working memory and most fluency tasks, but below the MA group on inhibition, planning, and non-verbal executive-loaded working memory. Children with ID performed below CA comparisons on all the executive tasks. We suggest that children with ID have a specific profile of executive functioning, with MA appropriate abilities to generate new exemplars (fluency) and to switch attention between tasks, but difficulties with respect to inhibiting pre-potent responses, planning, and non-verbal executive-loaded working memory The development of different types of executive functioning skills may, to different degrees, be related to mental age and experience.
authors.affiliation: The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Linköping, Sweden. henrik.danielsson@liu.se
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Danielsson
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Messer
authors.forename: Jerker
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rönnberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology