Assesses executive functioning in preschool-aged children.
Gerald A. Gioia, Ph.D., Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D., and Peter K. Isquith, Ph.D.

• Age Range: 2-5 years
• Time: 10-15 minutes

The observations of parents and teachers provide a wealth of information about a child’s behavior that is directly relevant to an understanding of that child’s executive functioning. The assessment of executive function in preschool-aged children is often difficult because of the variable nature of behavior in this age range; the limitations in motor and verbal proficiency at this age; and the many neuropsychological, psychological, developmental, and other medical conditions that begin to manifest during the preschool years.

The BRIEF-P is the first standardized rating scale designed to specifically measure the range of behavioral manifestations of executive function in preschool-aged children- thus facilitating intervention at earlier stages of development.

The BRIEF-P consists of a single Rating Form used by parents, teachers, and day care providers to rate a child's executive functions within the context of his/her everyday environments--home and preschool. The original Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function™ (BRIEF™) was the basis for the development of the BRIEF-P. Consequently, the BRIEF-P is an ecologically valid and efficient tool for screening, assessing, and monitoring a young child's executive functioning and development.

The hand-scorable BRIEF-P Rating Form consists of 63 items that measure various aspects of executive functioning: Inhibit, Shift, Emotional Control, Working Memory, and Plan/Organize. The clinical scales form three broad indexes (Inhibitory Self-Control, Flexibility, and Emergent Metacognition) and one composite score (Global Executive Composite). The BRIEF-P also provides two validity scales (Inconsistency and Negativity).

The BRIEF-P has high internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability. Convergent and discriminant validity was demonstrated with other measures of inattention, hyperactivity-impulsivity, depression, atypicality, anxiety and somatic complaints.

Factor analytic studies provide support for the three-factor model of executive functioning as embodied by the three indexes, which accounted for 87% and 92% of the variance in the parent and teacher normative groups, respectively. The Working Memory and the Plan/Organize scales define the first component, the Shift and Emotional Control scales define the second component and the Inhibit and Emotional Control scales define the third component.

Normative data is based on child ratings from 460 parents and 302 teachers from urban, suburban, and rural areas, reflecting 1999 U.S. Census estimates for race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and age. Clinical samples included children in the following diagnostic/clinical groups: ADHD, prematurity, language disorders, autism spectrum disorders and mixed clinical.

The BRIEF-P is useful in assessing preschool-aged children with such medical, acquired neurological, and developmental conditions as prematurity, emerging learning disabilities and attentional disorders, language disorders, traumatic brain injuries, lead exposure and pervasive developmental disorders/autism.

The BRIEF-P Kit includes a manual and 25 each of the Rating Forms and Scoring Summary/Profile Forms.