Prevalence of Low Scores on Executive Functions Tests in a Spanish-Speaking Pediatric Population from 10 Latin American Countries and Spain

Abstract

Pediatric neuropsychologists and researchers commonly interpret a low score as a cognitive weakness. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of low scores for three neuropsychological tests used to evaluate executive function in 4,595 healthy children from Latin-America and Spain. Results showed that low scores are common when multiple neuropsychological outcomes are evaluated in healthy individuals. Clinicians should consider the higher probability of low scores in a given individual when evaluating executive functions using various sets of scores to reduce false-positive diagnoses of cognitive deficits in a child.