To better support children with neurodevelopmental disorders, access to clinically validated assessment tests leading to accurate diagnoses and reliable cognitive profiles is essential. For forty years, the five-point test (5PT) has been approved in clinical neuropsychology. Conducted using a paper and pen until now, it evaluates an individual’s executive functions (i.e., the high-level cognitive processes that play a key role in their academic success and social integration).
Bruno Gauthier, neuropsychologist, professor and researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Brain and Learning (CIRCA) at Université de Montréal, has taken up the challenge of using the technology to foster interdisciplinarity and the well-being of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. In collaboration with experts in a range of fields including psychology, neuropsychology, speech therapy, psychoeducation and computer science, Professor Gauthier and his team developed an electronic version of 5PT known as AppFLO.
Subjects who take the graphic fluency test have five minutes to create as many different drawings as possible by connecting dots arranged like the face of a die on a tablet screen. Successfully completing the exercise requires a coordinated combination of executive functions: working memory, inhibition, flexibility and planning. The AppFLO program takes highly detailed measurements to assess the test taker’s functions.
The modernization of this clinical assessment method has standardized certain practices between research, clinical and school environments. AppFLO makes it easier to identify executive dysfunctions in children, helping to better target interventions to enhance their academic success and social integration. The technology will prove especially practical in school settings and could be used by professionals other than neuropsychologists, such as psychoeducators. The assessments can also be conducted without external consultants, whose services parents don’t always have the means to call upon.
What’s more, AppFLO could be used as an assessment tool in adult and elderly populations, particularly with patients suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD), acquired disorders (e.g., following a traumatic brain injury) and neurodegenerative disorders (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease).
Sources:
Cortez, A., Moyano, N. et Quilez Robres, A. (2019). The Relationship Between Executive Functions and Academic Performance in Primary Education: Review and Meta-analysis, Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 10, 1582. 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01582
Fournier, A., Gauthier, B., Guay, M.-C. et Parent, V. (2020). Design Fluency in Children with ADHD and Comorbid Disorders, Brain Sciences, vol. 10, 172.