Evaluating the feasibility of the NIH toolbox cognition battery for autistic children and adolescents
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This study evaluates the feasibility of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIH-TCB) for use in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 116 autistic children and adolescents and 80 typically developing (TD) controls, ages 3-17 years, completed four NIH-TCB tasks related to inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and episodic memory. While the majority of autistic and TD children completed all four tasks, autistic children experienced greater difficulties with task completion. Across autistic and TD children, performance on NIH-TCB tasks was highly dependent on IQ, but significant performance differences related to ASD diagnosis were found for two of four tasks. These findings highlight the potential strengths and limitations of the NIH-TCB for use with autistic children.
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The NIHTB-CB has been used extensively to examine neuropsychological functioning of children and adolescents with diverse clinical conditions.
“The NIHTB-CB has been used extensively to examine the neuropsychological functioning of children and adolescents with diverse characteristics and clinical conditions.”
From Cognitive weaknesses or impairments on the NIH toolbox cognition battery in children and adolescents: base rates in a normative sample and proposed methods for classification (2025) · cites this paper as Jones et al., 2022
The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery section describes use of the battery in studies involving Fragile X syndrome, Down syndrome, intellectual disability, and autism. It also says that evidence in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is limited, so it does not support the claim that the battery has been used extensively across diverse clinical conditions. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Jones, D. R., Dallman, A., Harrop, C., Whitten, A., Pritchett, J., Lecavalier, L., Bodfish, J. W., & Boyd, B. A.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Dallas (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- University of Kansas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Jones, Desiree R.
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2021-03-24
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 689-699
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- PMC
- PMC9817474
- OpenAlex
- W3136236127
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD082127-06, P30-HD03110)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, autism spectrum disorder, cognitive assessment, feasibility, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, episodic memory, IQ, autistic children and adolescents
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adolescent, Autistic Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Cognition, Feasibility Studies, Humans
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