摘要：Executive functions are the basis for goal-directed activity and include planning,
monitoring, and inhibition, and language seems to play a role in the development of
these functions. There is a tradition of studying executive function in both typical and
atypical populations, and the present study investigates executive functions in children
with severe speech and motor impairments who are communicating using communication
aids with graphic symbols, letters, and/or words. There are few neuropsychological studies
of children in this group and little is known about their cognitive functioning, including
executive functions. It was hypothesized that aided communication would tax executive
functions more than speech. Twenty-nine children using communication aids and 27
naturally speaking children participated. Structured tasks resembling everyday activities,
where the action goals had to be reached through communication with a partner, were
used to get information about executive functions. The children (a) directed the partner to
perform actions like building a Lego tower from a model the partner could not see and (b)
gave information about an object without naming it to a person who had to guess what
object it was. The executive functions of planning, monitoring, and impulse control were
coded from the children’s on-task behavior. Both groups solved most of the tasks correctly,
indicating that aided communicators are able to use language to direct another person to
do a complex set of actions. Planning and lack of impulsivity was positively related to
task success in both groups. The aided group completed significantly fewer tasks, spent
longer time and showed more variation in performance than the comparison group. The
aided communicators scored lower on planning and showed more impulsivity than the
comparison group, while both groups showed an equal degree of monitoring of the work
progress. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that aided language tax executive
functions more than speech. The results may also indicate that aided communicators have
less experience with these kinds of play activities. The findings broaden the perspective
on executive functions and have implications for interventions for motor-impaired children
developing aided communication.
关键词：executive functions; assessment; aided communication; Cerebral Palsy; severe speech and movement disorder
