ABSTRACT
Executive skills include the ability to plan ahead and organise behaviour across time and space in order to fulfill goals and intentions. In relation to behaviour, medial lesions may be linked to akinetic mutism with reduced spontaneous behaviour and difficulties in the initiation of speech. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) assesses problem solving and the ability to change strategy in response to altered feedback about performance. Visuo-spatial disorders may disrupt performance, task performance is also disrupted following frontal lobe pathology, when the ability to construct and implement a sensible plan of action is deficient. Autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder, in which there is reduced social interaction, impaired verbal and non-verbal communication, an absence of imaginative play, and a restricted repertoire of interest. In child neuropsychology, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been a pervasive clinical classification, particularly in the United States, though with clear variation in the classification criteria deployed and within the clinical entity itself.
