The Relation between Social Functioning and Executive Control in Preschool-Aged Children with and without ASD

Background: A hallmark of ASD is reduced social functioning. Additionally, impaired executive control (EC), the ability to manage higher-order cognitive functions that underlie goal-directed behaviors, has been identified in many children with ASD. Research suggests that EC is needed for proper development of social functioning. Given that EC and social functioning are impaired in ASD, it is important to examine the relation between these two constructs in this population.

Objectives: To examine relations between EC and social functioning in preschool-aged children (two and four year-olds) with and without ASD.

Methods: As part of an ongoing study, two and four year-olds with ASD (n=21) and typically developing controls (TD; n=21) completed tasks that measured EC and social functioning. In line with previous research, performance on a Joint Attention task (Miller & Marcovich, 2015), which consisted of gaze following, object spectacle, and book presentation tests, measured social functioning. The total instances of initiating joint attention (IJA) was the primary outcome. Additionally, lower-level joint attention behaviors were measured: Total instances of responding to joint attention (RJA) and initiating behavioral requests (IBR). Consistent with previous studies, performance on two looking tasks (A-not-B; Bell & Adams, 1999 and A-not-B with invisible displacement (ID); Morasch & Bell, 2011) measured EC. The total number of correct reversals summed across these tasks was used as the primary outcome to measure inhibitory control of the prepotent response, a critical component of EC. Higher scores indicated better performance for both tasks.

Results: The results of an ANCOVA, controlling for age and IQ, indicated that IJA did not differ significantly between groups (p>.05). Although IQ had a significant effect (F(1,36)=5.76, p=.022), age did not (p>.05). For total correct reversals, age (F(1,38)=19.56, p<.001) but not IQ (p>.05) had a significant effect and groups differed significantly (F(1,38)=4.55, p=.039; ASD worse than TD), above and beyond age and IQ. Finally, within-group partial correlations, controlling for age and IQ, showed a significant, moderate positive correlation between IJA and total correct reversals (r=.488, p=.047) among children with ASD. No significant correlation was found between IJA and total correct reversals for the TD group (p>.05). Further, no significant correlations were found between total correct reversals and RJA nor IBR within either diagnostic group (p’s>.05).

Conclusions: The results from these analyses suggest that there is a significant relationship between social functioning and EC in preschool-aged children with ASD. Children with ASD who had more instances of IJA performed better on a task measuring inhibitory control. These findings are notable given the link between EC and successful social functioning. However, while all children with ASD are socially impaired, the degree to which this population experiences executive dysfunction likely varies greatly between individuals. This heterogeneric presentation is important when building a behavioral profile of children with ASD to guide treatment-related decisions. Higher-powered, future analyses will continue to examine the individual behavioral differences among ASD children over time.