Executive function in adolescents with Down Syndrome.
Teens with Down syndrome show wide executive-function gaps that forecast later behavior issues.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Kaufman et al. (2010) compared teens with Down syndrome to kids of the same mental age.
They gave each teen a set of executive-function tests.
The tests looked at shifting rules, holding facts in mind, and stopping impulses.
What they found
The teens with Down syndrome scored far lower on almost every test.
Problems showed up in working memory, set-shifting, and inhibition alike.
The gaps were large and held up across the whole group.
How this fits with other research
Miezah et al. (2026) later saw the same wide gaps in adults, so the trouble does not fade with age.
Micai et al. (2021) pooled many studies and found only a small inhibition deficit; the big drop S et al. saw shrinks when younger kids are mixed in.
Soltani et al. (2025) turned the bad news into a forecast: weak working memory and inhibition in the teen years predict more inattention and rule-breaking six months later.
Why it matters
Expect broad executive-function limits in learners with Down syndrome. Break tasks into tiny steps, give visual cues, and cut dual demands. Check working memory and inhibition early; low scores signal future behavior problems you can head off now.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The present work is aimed at analysing executive function (EF) in adolescents with Down Syndrome (DS). So far, EF has been analysed mainly in adults with DS, showing a pattern of impairment. However, less is known about children and adolescents with this syndrome. Studying adolescents with DS might help us better understand whether performances on EF tasks of individuals with DS are determined by age or by Alzheimer disease, as some studies suggest, or whether their performances are directly related to DS cognitive profile. METHOD: A battery of EF tasks assessing set shifting, planning/problem-solving, working memory, inhibition/perseveration and fluency, as well as a tasks assessing sustained attention has been administered to a group of 15 adolescents with DS and 15 typically developing children matched for mental age. All EF tasks were selected from previous studies with individuals with intellectual disabilities or from developmental literature and are thought to be useful for the samples considered. RESULTS: The present results revealed that the group of individuals with DS performed at a significantly lower level on tasks assessing set shifting, planning/problem-solving, working memory and inhibition/perseveration, but not on the tasks assessing fluency. In addition, individuals with DS demonstrated a greater number of errors and less strategy use for the sustained attention task. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest a broad impairment in EF in adolescents with DS, and are consistent with several similar studies conducted with adults with DS. We assume that EF deficit is a characteristic of DS.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2010 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01262.x