Executive Function/Attention Deficits in Boys with Asperger syndrome, Attention Disorder and reading/writing disorder

by Agneta Nyden, Christopher Gillberg, Erland Hjelmquist and Mikael Heiman (1999) autism, 3, 213-228.

“Executive function/attention deficits were examined in children with Asperger syndrome, attention disorder and reading/writing disorder and in a group of normal children. Neuropsychological tests as well as cognitive tasks measuring different components in the processing of information were used.”

“All abnormal groups differed markedly from the normal group on measure of executive function/attention.” (p. 213)

“The results of the present investigation may be taken to suggest that children with ADHD have difficulties in attention plus fine motor skills, those with reading and writing disorder have attentional problems plus auditory memory dysfunction, and those with Asperger syndrome have attentional deficits and reduced speed” (p. 222)

“Although clinical experience suggests that many individuals with Asperger syndrome have arithmetic problems, this was not borne out by the present results. However, in a recent study on a considerably larger group of individuals, those with Asperger syndrome did show poor performance on the arithmetic subtest” (p. 224).