# Executive Function Outcome Measures for Young Children with Down Syndrome

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $564,683

## Abstract

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common neurogenetic syndrome associated with intellectual
disability, occurring in approximately 1:691 live births (Parker et al., 2010). Recent approaches
to treatment in DS and other neurogenetic disorders have begun to focus on the earliest part of
the lifespan. This type of targeted early treatment work will require highly sensitive and
psychometrically sound outcome measures to demonstrate effects on early developmental
trajectories in DS. However, young children with DS show phenotype-specific delays in motor
development and early communication, which could confound the reliability and validity of early
developmental assessments in the critical cognitive domain of executive function (EF). Therefore,
rigorous psychometric validation of EF assessments is needed to advance treatment science for
young children with DS. In this study, 210 young children with DS (between 2.5 and 7.99 years)
will be assessed at four waves of data collection to establish reliability, validity, internal
consistency, and sensitivity to change in the proposed battery of assessments. A promising set of
laboratory assessments has been selected to measure various aspects of EF. The proposed
measures will minimize phenotype-related confounds that threaten the reliability and/or the
validity of early cognitive assessment in DS. Advanced quantitative analytic approaches utilizing
latent variable models within a structural equation modeling framework will be used to
investigate the psychometric properties of the proposed measures. Project outcomes will
strengthen treatment science for young children with DS and contribute to the critical effort to
improve developmental outcomes in this population.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10439634
- **Project number:** 5R01HD099150-04
- **Recipient organization:** COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DEBORAH J FIDLER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $564,683
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-13 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10439634

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10439634, Executive Function Outcome Measures for Young Children with Down Syndrome (5R01HD099150-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10439634. Licensed CC0.

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