Executive Functioning in Children, Adolescents, and Adults With Attention Deficit/hyperactivity Disorder

The purpose of this special issue is to present current research findings concerning executive functions in preschoolers, children, adolescents, and adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), taking into account gender, comorbidity, genetic, and physiological findings. Experts in the area of executive functions and ADHD contributed to the articles in this issue. The studies examine executive functions in ADHD across a wide range of ages and address a variety of different issues. Together, the articles in this issue provide strong evidence that executive functions are measurable in very young children and that deficits in executive function are often found in children, adolescents, and adults with ADHD. The studies also suggest that impairments in executive function are characteristic of both boys and girls, persist over time, and in many cases do not appear to be accounted for by intelligence, comorbid depression, or learning disabilities. The findings in this issue do suggest that executive function deficits are characteristic of other disorders and therefore are not unique to ADHD.