The Investigation of Patterns in Teacher Ratings of Executive Functioning in Children with Reading and Math Disabilities

Abstract

Present research indicates children with Math Disabilities (MD) and Reading Disabilities (RD) often display difficulties with executive functioning (EF). That is, one or more components of EF (e.g. attention, memory, organization) are associated with these learning difficulties. Overall, limited research exists exploring EF from an ecological perspective and particular individual profiles of dysfunction, especially in the area of math. Further, current EF measures are often developmentally inappropriate and results are frequently not generalizable to school environments when conducted in controlled testing settings. The fundamental goal of this study was to investigate EF patterns in children with RD and MD using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF). The studies total sample consisted of 164 children between the ages of 6 and 12 enrolled in a public school district in rural Colorado. The clinical group (n=104) consisted of 52 children with exclusive diagnosis of RD and 52 of MD. The remaining 60 children comprised the match control. Teachers completed the BRIEF for both the clinical and control groups. To investigate group differences in EF, a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and profile analysis were used to compare the groups across the eight subscales of EF. Findings revealed that there were significant differences between the groups at the .001 suggesting differences between profiles of EF. The control group demonstrated consistently low scores while the RD and MD group scores were significantly at a higher level with the MD being most elevated. A discriminant analysis indicated that the most predictive BRIEF subscales for differentiating the three criterion groups were Inhibit, Initiate, Working Memory, and Plan & Organization, correctly predicting group membership 60% of the time. The findings from this study provided useful information regarding the use of the BRIEF with children who have RD and MD.