Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have serious difficulties to ignore visual and auditory distractors, or to inhibit ongoing activity on behalf of a new one, or to extract themselves from a routine. Such so-called executive functions enable us to control ourselves and to consider things from multiple points of view. They also involve paying attention, remembering what we need to remember to pursue our goals, thinking flexibly and not going on automatic, exercising inhibition. Then, the observed executive inefficiency of ASD could be one of the main cause of perseverating behaviors in daily life and school activities. If the question of the efficient evolution of these executive functions from childhood to neurotypical adulthood has been addressed in many cognitive development researches, very few studies have focused on the atypical development of ASD patients. Following Diamond et al. , it is important to note that beyond acquiring always more knowledge, it is crucial to be able to inhibit reactions that get in the way of learning something new. Using preliminary data, we will explain how LearnEnjoy apps could become an essential basis of an innovative experimental paradigm, aiming at a better understanding of the atypical executive development of school-age ASD children. Based on new executive digital apps such as Stroop or Flanker Tasks testing for executive inhibition, the main goal of this scientific project is to show evidence of the possibility of executive training in children with ASD. As executive function skills predict children's success in life and in school , such a new scientific study should allow us to envisage creating innovative remediation protocols for improving the deliberate, goal-directed control of behavior of ASD patients.
A Distinct Three-Factor Structure of Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors in an Epidemiologically Sound Sample of Preschool-Age Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
