2006). Because these studies did not include a comparison group it is difficult to conclude whether the magnitude of the deficits persists when compared to a demographically matched control group. A later investigation of 43 adolescents (age 13–18 years) did include a comparison group and replicated these effects, revealing that children with prenatal alcohol exposure demonstrate poorer executive functioning than typically developing controls for all subscales and summary indices of the BRIEF (McGee, Fryer, Bjorkquist, Mattson, & Riley, 2008). However, parents of the children with FASD in this study were instructed to recruit another child similar to their own but without prenatal alcohol exposure. These unexposed children comprised the comparison group; as a result, the group may not have been representative of the population of typically developing children. While more research is needed in this area, these parent-report findings are further supported by neuropsychological data, which indicate that alcohol-exposed children are delayed on executive function tasks, including measures of problem-solving, planning, concept formation and conceptual set shifting, verbal and nonverbal fluency, response inhibition, and working memory, as detailed below.
