Specific language impairment and executive functioning: parent and teacher ratings of behavior

The current study used the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P; Gioia, Espy, & Isquith, 2003), a rating scale designed to investigate executive behaviors in everyday activities, to examine the executive functioning of preschool children with specific language impairment (SLI) relative to their typically developing (TD) peers.

Nineteen preschool children with SLI were age- and gender-matched to 19 TD peers. Both parents and teachers of the participants completed the BRIEF-P.

The executive functioning of children with SLI were rated significantly worse than those of controls by both parents and teachers. Adults' perceptions of the children's executive functioning significantly correlated with the children's language abilities.

Parent and teacher perceptions of executive functioning in children with SLI align with prior findings of executive deficits that have been documented on neuropsychological assessments and experimental tasks. Furthermore, the results provide additional supporting evidence of the relationship between language abilities and executive functioning in early child development.