Parent Reports of Executive Function Associated with Functional Communication and Conversational Skills Among School Age Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Despite average or above cognitive and verbal abilities, many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties in functional and social communication. Executive functioning (EF) may be the cognitive and regulatory mechanism that underlies these difficulties. Parents rated 92 children with ASD as demonstrating significantly more challenges than 94 typically developing children on measures of EF (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function; BRIEF), functional communication (FC), and verbal conversation (VC) skills. For both groups, the BRIEF metacognition scale emerged as a strong predictor of FC, while the BRIEF behavior regulation and the inhibit scale were predictive of VC skills. These findings suggest that targeting EF domains specifically may improve FC and VC skills in children with ASD.