Everyday Executive Function in Preschoolers with Autism and Links with Intellectual Functioning, Adaptive Behavior, and Autism Symptoms.
Preschoolers with autism who struggle to stop or remember also struggle to dress, eat, and play with peers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked 110 parents of 3- to young learners with autism to fill out three short rating forms.
One form captured everyday executive function skills like stopping, remembering, and planning.
The other two measured the child’s daily living skills and autism symptom load.
What they found
Kids with the weakest inhibition and working memory also had the lowest self-care and social scores.
Stronger autism symptoms went hand-in-hand with bigger EF gaps.
The link held even after IQ was taken into account.
How this fits with other research
Granader et al. (2014) first showed EF-planning and shifting gaps in preschoolers with ASD; Terroux et al. (2025) now add inhibition and working memory to that early picture.
Myers et al. (2018) found the same EF-adaptive link in 8- to young learners, so the pattern seems to stay across childhood.
Austin et al. (2015) tracked kids longitudinally and saw the gap widen with age, hinting that early EF problems may snowball if left alone.
Why it matters
If a young learners client struggles to wait or hold two-step directions, expect daily living goals to lag.
Build simple stop-and-think games into play routines now; they may protect later adaptive gains.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Impairments in executive function (EF) among individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their association with negative academic, adaptive, and social functioning outcomes have been widely reported over the past 20 years. However, there remains a lack of understanding of EF in autism during the preschool period, an age at which several crucial abilities (including EF) emerge. The present study therefore sought to document everyday EF in preschool-aged children with autism and its associations with other clinical characteristics. Parents rated the EF of their preschool-aged child with autism (M = 30-65 months, N = 288) using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P; Gioia, G. A., Espy, K. A., & Isquith, P. K. (2003). Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version. Psychological Assessment Resources.). Intellectual quotient, adaptive behavior, and autism symptom severity were also assessed. Preschoolers with ASD displayed impairments in everyday EF, particularly in relation with inhibition and working memory. Greater challenges in EF were strongly associated with lower levels of adaptive behavior and a higher severity of autistic symptoms. To a lesser extent, EF challenges were also associated with lower levels of intellectual functioning. The early assessment and detection of EF difficulties in preschoolers with ASD may assist in developing and integrating specific intervention targets to improve these essential abilities within existing early intervention programs for ASD. This could help to maximize their effectiveness and limit the extent of difficulties these children may face growing up.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1111/j.0037-976x.2003.00260.x