Executieve functies van jonge kinderen met disruptieve gedragsproblemen en ADHD: Inhibitie

Abstract

Background: This study describes differences of inhibitory control between preschoolers with and without an ODD/CD diagnosis and/or ADHD and age effects, measured by experimental instruments. The new Snack Delay task is brought into focus. Method: Participants in this clinical-based sample comprised preschool children (age range 3;6 - 5;6) with a diagnosis ADHD, ODD/CD or ADHD+ODD/CD (N = 147) and controls (N = 58), which completed a battery of four inhibition tasks twice with an interval of 9 months. Results: Three out of four inhibition tasks in session 1 showed that the clinical sample made significant more inhibition errors than controls. These findings were inconsistent for session 2, showing variable outcomes on tasks among groups. Significant differences between young and old preschoolers were found. Even though these findings are inconsistent for all groups and tasks, preschoolers seem to improve their inhibitory skills with age according to expectation. Conclusion: Results partially support the assumption that inhibitory control improves with age and impaired inhibitory control is related to children with an ODD/CD and/or ADHD diagnosis. Further comparison accounting for various control variables and more research is necessary to better understand the development of inhibition processes with age and the specific link with ADHD and/or ODD/CD. Keywords: ADHD, ODD/CD, executive function, inhibition, preschool children, Snack Delay.