INTRODUCTION:

Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) present difficulties in executive functions (EF), but discrepancies have been suggested between the direct and indirect measures of these functions.

OBJECTIVE:

To determinate if there are differences in executive functions through direct and indirect measures between children with and without ASD.

METHOD:

Included 14 children between first and third grade, 50 % with ASD diagnosis and 50 % with neurotypical development, selectedby pairing age and grade. The average age of the sample was 7.43 (SD 0.98) years-old. The neuropsychologycal evaluation of executive functions in children (ENFEN) and the behavioral rating of executive functions (BRIEF) were applied.

RESULTS:

Significant differences between groups were found (p < 0.05) in the indirect measures of executive functions, but not in the direct ones. Likewise, correlations were higher between direct and indirect measures in ASD group.

CONCLUSIONS:

ASD children were evaluated with more difficulties in indirect measures of behavioral EF, but they obtain similar scores in direct measures compared to children with neurotypical development under controlled conditions.