Differences in Executive Functioning for children with additional learning needs and Autism Spectrum Disorder or Attachment Disorder

Abstract

This study explored overlaps in diagnosis and characteristics of children (9–16 years old) with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Attachment Disorder (AD) as they related to Executive Function (EF) to determine whether differences in EF would differentiate between the two conditions. A sample of 79 pupils with comorbid learning disabilities was examined in terms of their clinical diagnoses and psychometric traits, as well as on four EF tasks (WCST, Hungry Donkey, Stroop, and Tower of London). 25% of the sample met clinical diagnostic criteria for both ASD and AD, and a similar overlap was noted when using psychometric assessments. Little difference between the EF performances of individuals with ASD and AD was noted. There was slightly better AD performance on cold EF tasks requiring attentional shifting, and slightly better performance for ASD on hot tasks requiring inhibition. However, these differences would be of limited use in differentiating between the conditions for a learning-disabled population.