Executive Functions Assessment: D-KEFS and BADS-C

1. What are executive functions?

Executive functions (EFs) are an umbrella term for the higher-order cognitive processes that allow us to organise and regulate behaviour in order to achieve goals.

They are particularly important when a situation is new, complex, changing, or requires deliberate control, rather than when behaviour can simply be carried out automatically.

Examples in everyday life include:

• Planning - organising how to complete a task or reach a goal.

• Problem solving - identifying possible solutions and selecting an effective one.

• Inhibition / impulse control - stopping an automatic or inappropriate response.

• Cognitive flexibility - changing strategies or ways of thinking when circumstances change.

• Set shifting / switching - moving between different rules, tasks or mental sets.

• Rule learning - learning and applying rules governing behaviour.

• Concept formation - recognising underlying categories or relationships.

• Abstract thinking - thinking beyond literal or immediately obvious information.

• Fluency and productivity - efficiently generating multiple responses or ideas.

• Creativity - producing novel responses.

• Sequencing - maintaining information or actions in the correct order.

• Hypothesis testing - generating a possible explanation and testing whether it is correct.

• Using feedback - changing behaviour according to information about previous performance.

• Establishing and maintaining cognitive set - adopting a task rule or strategy and maintaining it appropriately.

• Performance monitoring - keeping track of whether your behaviour is successfully achieving the goal.

These abilities develop substantially throughout childhood alongside brain development, and different components of executive functioning develop at different rates. This makes assessment particularly relevant in paediatric neuropsychology.

PART 1: DELIS-KAPLAN EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SYSTEM - D-KEFS

2. What is the D-KEFS?

The Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) was developed by Delis, Kaplan and Kramer (2001).

It assesses key components of executive functioning across verbal and spatial modalities in people aged 8-89 years.

Structure

The D-KEFS contains nine stand-alone tests, administered one-to-one.

Each test takes approximately 15 minutes, while the complete battery is estimated at approximately 90 minutes.

Importantly, clinicians would not normally administer every test simply because they belong to the same battery. Instead, tests can be selected according to the individual's suspected difficulties. For example, if inhibition is a particular concern, tests placing demands on inhibition could be selected.

There is NO overall D-KEFS composite score

This is an important feature.

The D-KEFS does not provide one aggregate score representing someone's overall "executive functioning".

This makes conceptual sense because executive functioning is multifaceted. Someone could have relatively intact planning but poor inhibition, for example. Combining everything into one score could therefore conceal meaningful differences between executive processes.

The major domains assessed include:

concept formation, inhibition, planning, cognitive flexibility, fluency and productivity.

Most D-KEFS tests are modifications of established neuropsychological measures, including:

• Trail Making Test

• Tower Test

• Stroop-type tasks

However, some newer measures were introduced, such as the Word Context Test.

3. A key principle of the D-KEFS: contrast conditions

One of the most important things to understand about the D-KEFS is that many tests contain multiple conditions.

The purpose is to help distinguish executive difficulties from more basic difficulties involving:

• attention

• perception

• language

• processing speed

• motor functioning.

For example, imagine a child is very slow on a task requiring them to switch between numbers and letters.

This does not automatically mean they have poor cognitive flexibility.

They might simply have slow:

• visual scanning,

• processing speed,

• sequencing ability, or

• motor speed.

The D-KEFS therefore includes simpler baseline/control conditions that can be compared with more executive-demanding conditions.

Example

A child might complete:

numbers only → letters only → numbers and letters alternately.

If they are fine with numbers and letters separately but become disproportionately slow when they must alternate between them, this provides stronger evidence that the additional switching demand is causing difficulty.

This is a major advantage of the D-KEFS because executive tasks are rarely "pure". Most executive tasks simultaneously require other basic cognitive abilities.

4. Psychometric properties of the D-KEFS

Normative sample

The D-KEFS was standardised using 1,750 individuals aged 8-89 years.

The normative sample was designed to represent the 2000 US Census in relation to:

• sex

• age

• race and ethnicity

• educational level

• geographic region.

However, the norms date from 2001, which should be considered when interpreting the measure today.

Test-retest reliability

The test-retest interval was 9-74 days, with an average of approximately 25 days.

For the majority of tests, test-retest reliability was only in the moderate range.

Why does this matter?

Test-retest reliability asks:

If I test the same person again, do I obtain approximately the same result?

Moderate reliability means scores may change between administrations.

This is particularly relevant for executive-function tasks because a person may learn a strategy during the first administration and use that strategy when completing the task again.

Internal consistency

Internal consistency concerns how strongly the different items within a test relate to one another.

Only around 17% of the reported reliability coefficients were above .80, which has been a criticism of the D-KEFS.

However, executive-function tasks require a complex spectrum of cognitive processes, so some performance variability may be expected.

Validity

Correlations between different D-KEFS tests are relatively low.

This could be interpreted negatively as limited convergent validity, but it could also occur because the tests assess different components of executive functioning.

The D-KEFS has shown moderate correlations with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), although further validity evidence has been considered necessary.

5. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test - useful comparison

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a classic measure of set shifting, dating back to 1948.

The individual sorts cards according to an unknown rule, for example:

• colour

• shape

• number.

They are not told the rule.

Instead, they receive feedback indicating whether their responses are correct or incorrect.

Eventually, the sorting rule changes.

The individual must therefore:

1. use feedback to discover the original rule;

2. maintain that rule;

3. recognise when it is no longer working;

4. inhibit the previously successful response;

5. shift to a new rule.

Therefore, even a task described as measuring "set shifting" actually involves feedback use, hypothesis testing, inhibition, learning and cognitive flexibility.

This illustrates an important theme:

Executive-function tests rarely measure only one executive function.

6. D-KEFS scaled scores

Individual D-KEFS test scores may be converted to scaled scores.

For these:

Mean = 10

Standard deviation = 3

This is the same type of scaled-score metric commonly encountered on individual Wechsler subtests.

Therefore:

• 10 = exactly average

• 7 = 1 SD below the mean

• 13 = 1 SD above the mean

• 4 = 2 SD below the mean

• 16 = 2 SD above the mean

The case example illustrates why the individual conditions matter. The child showed low scores across several Trail Making conditions, including relatively simple conditions and motor speed. Therefore, poor switching performance cannot simply be interpreted as a pure switching deficit because baseline speed was already weak.

THE NINE D-KEFS TESTS

7. Trail Making Test

The Trail Making Test has a long history. It was used in 1944 to assess general intelligence as part of the Army Individual Test of General Ability. During the 1950s it became increasingly used to examine cognitive dysfunction following brain damage and was incorporated into the Halstead-Reitan battery.

The D-KEFS version contains five conditions.

Condition 1 - Visual Scanning

The participant crosses out all the 3s on a response sheet.

This provides information about basic visual scanning and visual attention.

Condition 2 - Number Sequencing

Connect:

1 → 2 → 3 → ... → 16

Distractor letters are also present.

This therefore adds sequencing while maintaining visual-search demands.

Condition 3 - Letter Sequencing

Connect:

A → B → C → ... → P

Distractor numbers are present.

Again, this measures sequencing while controlling for visual search.

Condition 4 - Number-Letter Switching

Alternate between numbers and letters:

1 → A → 2 → B → 3 → C ...

This substantially increases executive demands because the individual must continuously switch between two sequences.

They must also inhibit the automatic tendency to continue:

1 → 2 → 3

or

A → B → C.

Therefore, the condition particularly assesses:

• cognitive set shifting

• switching

• flexibility of thinking

• inhibition

• sequencing

• visual attention

• processing speed.

Condition 5 - Motor Speed

The participant traces over a dotted line connecting circles as quickly as possible.

This provides a baseline estimate of motor drawing speed.

Why is Condition 5 important?

Suppose someone performs poorly on Number-Letter Switching.

If their Motor Speed score is also very low, some of their slow performance could reflect motor slowing, rather than an isolated switching deficit.

That is exactly why the D-KEFS uses contrasting conditions.

Key exam link

Trail Making uses baseline conditions to help determine whether poor number-letter switching reflects executive set-shifting difficulties or more basic visual, sequencing, processing-speed or motor difficulties.

8. Verbal Fluency Test

The Verbal Fluency Test asks the participant to produce as many words as possible within 60 seconds.

There are different conditions.

Letter fluency

The individual generates words beginning with specified letters.

For example:

"Give me as many words beginning with F as you can."

Rules include restrictions such as avoiding:

• people's names

• place names

• numbers

• repetitions of the same word with different endings.

This means performance involves more than simply knowing words.

The individual must generate responses rapidly while simultaneously monitoring and inhibiting responses that violate the rules.

Category fluency

The participant generates items belonging to a semantic category, such as:

animals.

This requires efficient access to semantic knowledge and verbal productivity.

Category switching

The participant alternates between two semantic categories, for example:

fruit → furniture → fruit → furniture.

This introduces an additional switching/flexibility requirement.

Executive processes involved

The task assesses:

• fluency of verbal responses

• rule learning/following

• processing speed

• flexibility of thinking, particularly in the switching condition.

The rules themselves can also increase executive demands because responses that would otherwise be acceptable must sometimes be inhibited.

Important clinical observation

How someone generates words can also be informative.

A person may technically produce correct words but use an unusual or inefficient strategy. Behaviour during testing can therefore provide useful qualitative information alongside the numerical score.

9. Design Fluency Test

This can be thought of as a visual-spatial counterpart to verbal fluency.

Instead of rapidly generating words, the participant rapidly generates novel visual designs.

They are presented with arrays of dots and must produce as many different designs as possible using four lines.

Condition 1

Connect only filled dots.

Condition 2

Connect only empty dots.

Condition 3

Switch between filled and empty dots.

The third condition therefore adds a switching requirement to the basic design-generation task.

Processes involved

The task involves:

• visual-spatial fluency

• productivity

• creativity

• response inhibition

• cognitive flexibility

• motor speed

• visual-perceptual skills.

The individual must avoid simply reproducing the same design repeatedly, so they must monitor previous responses while continuing to generate new ones.

Key distinction

Verbal Fluency = generate verbal responses.

Design Fluency = generate visual-spatial responses.

Both assess fluency/productivity, but in different modalities.

10. Colour-Word Interference Test

The Colour-Word Interference Test is a version of the classic Stroop Test.

It contains baseline conditions followed by conditions that progressively increase executive demands.

Baseline 1 - Colour Naming

Name coloured patches as quickly as possible.

Baseline 2 - Word Reading

Read colour words printed in black.

These establish how quickly the person can perform the component skills without interference.

Inhibition condition

A colour word is printed in an incongruent ink colour.

For example:

BLUE printed in red ink.

The participant must say:

"red"

rather than reading:

"blue."

Reading the word is highly automatic, so the individual must inhibit the dominant reading response.

This is therefore a classic measure of response inhibition.

Inhibition/Switching condition

The participant must sometimes:

• name the ink colour

and sometimes:

• read the word,

depending on a cue such as whether the word appears inside a box.

Now the participant must both:

1. inhibit an automatic response, and

2. switch between competing rules.

Processes involved

• inhibition

• processing speed

• switching

• flexibility of thinking

• visual attention.

Key exam distinction

Inhibition condition = suppress the automatic reading response.

Inhibition/Switching = suppress responses AND flexibly alternate between two rules.

11. Sorting Test

The Sorting Test examines whether an individual can discover and generate different ways of categorising information.

Before testing, a screening pretest ensures that the examinee can read and understand the words printed on the cards.

The person receives six cards and is asked to divide them into:

two groups of three

where the three cards in each group share some characteristic.

The cards can potentially be sorted according to many dimensions.

Examples shown include:

• animals vs transportation

• air vs land

• one syllable vs two syllables

• uppercase vs lowercase

• colour

• perceptual characteristics such as curved vs straight-edged shapes.

The examinee therefore has to move beyond the first obvious solution and generate alternative conceptual relationships.

Condition 1 - Free Sorting

The individual generates as many different valid categorisation rules as possible.

This strongly involves:

• concept formation

• problem solving

• flexibility of thinking.

Condition 2 - Sort Recognition

The examiner sorts the cards.

The examinee must determine which rule the examiner used and explain their reasoning.

The individual is timed and must provide a rationale for each sort.

Why this is useful

The two conditions distinguish between someone's ability to:

generate a concept independently

versus

recognise an externally generated concept.

12. Twenty Questions Test

The participant is shown 30 common objects.

The examiner secretly selects one.

The participant must identify it by asking yes/no questions, using as few questions as possible.

For example, rather than immediately asking:

"Is it a banana?"

an efficient strategy would begin with broad categories:

"Is it food?"

Then:

"Is it a fruit?"

Then increasingly specific questions.

What does this require?

The individual must form hypotheses and use each answer to reduce the number of possible objects.

Therefore, the test involves:

• problem solving

• hypothesis testing

• abstract thinking

• categorisation

• visual attention

• flexibility of thinking

• using feedback to guide problem-solving behaviour.

Why feedback is crucial

Every "yes" or "no" provides new information.

A strong performer uses that information to modify the next question strategically.

Key exam idea

Twenty Questions assesses how efficiently someone generates and tests hypotheses while using feedback to narrow down possible solutions.

13. Word Context Test

This is one of the newer D-KEFS tasks.

The individual is presented with a made-up word or pseudo-word and receives a sequence of five riddle-like clues.

The clues become progressively more informative.

For example:

Many people eat sevs.

Then:

Sevs grow on trees.

Then:

Sevs are fairly round.

Then:

Sevs are usually red.

The individual continually updates their guess until they determine the word's likely meaning.

Executive processes involved

This requires:

• deductive reasoning

• hypothesis testing

• using feedback

• flexibility of thinking.

A hypothesis that initially seems plausible may become inconsistent with later clues. The individual therefore needs to abandon or modify an earlier interpretation rather than perseverating on it.

Important assessment issue

Pseudo-words are intended to be meaningless. However, linguistic and cultural background can matter because something designed as a pseudo-word in English may coincidentally have meaning in another language.

This illustrates a broader neuropsychological principle:

Always consider linguistic, educational and cultural factors when interpreting test performance.

14. Tower Test

The Tower Test uses:

• five disks of different sizes

• three pegs.

The examiner places the disks into a predetermined starting arrangement and shows the participant a target arrangement.

The participant must recreate the target:

• using the fewest possible moves

• in the shortest possible time.

Two important rules apply:

1. only one disk can be moved at a time

2. a larger disk cannot be placed on top of a smaller disk.

The D-KEFS version introduced easier starting items, producing a lower basal level and therefore increasing its sensitivity for younger children.

What does the Tower Test assess?

Most importantly:

• planning

• problem solving

• inhibition of impulsive responses

• establishing and maintaining cognitive set.

Why inhibition?

Sometimes the move that looks immediately helpful is actually counterproductive.

The individual may need to make an apparently "backwards" move temporarily so that the final configuration becomes possible.

Therefore they must inhibit the temptation to:

make the immediately obvious move

and instead:

think several moves ahead.

This is why planning and inhibition interact.

Performance information

Assessment can consider:

• number of moves

• rule violations

• completion time

• time until the first move

• whether the tower was completed correctly.

This gives more information than simply "pass/fail".

15. Proverb Test

The Proverb Test examines the ability to understand non-literal and abstract meaning.

Examples include:

• "You can't judge a book from its cover."

• "Rome wasn't built in a day."

• "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."

• "No bread is without crust."

Condition 1 - Free Inquiry

The person explains what the saying means in their own words.

Condition 2 - Multiple Choice

The person selects the best interpretation from four possibilities.

For:

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"

the options illustrate different response types:

• incorrect phonemic

• correct concrete

• incorrect unrelated

• correct abstract.

The intended abstract interpretation is essentially:

If you are not perfect yourself, you should not criticise others.

The task therefore assesses particularly:

• abstract thinking

• generalisation.

Important limitation

Knowledge of proverbs can depend strongly on previous exposure, language and culture.

Someone could therefore struggle because they have never encountered the saying rather than because they genuinely lack abstract reasoning ability.

There are also age-related limitations to the normative data. The slides specifically emphasise that the Proverb Test does not provide child norms across the younger age range.

16. The major limitation of traditional executive-function testing

This is one of the most important conceptual points for the exam.

A child can perform relatively well on a structured executive-function test while having substantial executive difficulties in everyday life.

Why?

Because traditional neuropsychological assessment creates a very unusual environment:

• one-to-one testing

• minimal distractions

• explicit instructions

• clear rules

• clearly defined goals

• examiner guidance

• one task at a time.

But everyday executive functioning is much less structured.

For example, in a classroom the child may simultaneously need to:

• remember instructions

• decide what to do first

• ignore other children

• inhibit impulses

• organise equipment

• monitor time

• switch between activities

• recognise mistakes

• correct mistakes

• maintain the overall goal.

Therefore:

Highly structured executive tests may reduce the very executive demands that cause problems in real life.

This creates an issue of ecological validity.

PART 2: BADS-C

17. Why was the BADS-C developed?

The Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-C) was developed by Emslie et al. (2003) for children aged 7-16 years.

Its tasks are designed to resemble the types of open-ended executive problems encountered in everyday life, increasing ecological validity compared with highly structured traditional tests.

The BADS-C includes:

• Playing Cards Test

• Water Test

• Key Search Test

• Zoo Map Tests 1 and 2

• Six Part Test

• Dysexecutive Questionnaire for Children (DEX-C).

18. Playing Cards Test

The task establishes one response rule and then changes the rule.

Rule 1

Say:

• "yes" to red

• "no" to black.

The child develops a response set.

Rule 2

The rule changes.

Now say:

• "yes" if the card is the same colour as the previous card

• "no" if it is different.

What does it assess?

Primarily:

• shifting/flexibility

• changing strategy

• inhibition.

The child must inhibit the previously established rule once it is no longer appropriate.

Key idea

A previously correct response becomes incorrect after the rule changes.

This is a classic executive demand because the child must update behaviour rather than perseverating.

19. Water Test

The Water Test is intended as an ecologically valid test of planning.

The child sees a cork at the bottom of a tube and must work out how to remove it using the available objects.

The important challenge is that the objects may need to be used flexibly rather than according to their most obvious everyday function.

For example, the solution involves using available equipment and water so that the cork eventually rises.

This therefore requires the child to:

1. assess the problem;

2. understand the desired endpoint;

3. identify potentially useful objects;

4. formulate a plan;

5. execute the plan;

6. monitor whether it is working;

7. modify behaviour if necessary.

Executive processes

Especially:

• planning

• problem solving

• flexibility of thinking

• performance monitoring.

Why is this more ecologically valid?

Unlike a tightly structured task where every step is specified, the child has to work out what to do.

That is much closer to real-world executive functioning.

20. Key Search Test

The child is asked to imagine that they have lost their keys in a field and must show how they would search for them.

They draw the route they would take.

The key issue is whether the search is:

systematic and pre-planned

rather than random.

The examples on page 7 illustrate this nicely.

High-scoring approaches systematically cover the available area, for example through organised parallel lines.

Poorer approaches are irregular, unsystematic or cover only limited areas.

What does it assess?

• planning

• inhibition

• performance monitoring.

The child needs to inhibit an unsystematic "just start looking" approach and instead develop a strategy that maximises the likelihood of finding the keys.

21. Zoo Map Test 1

The child must plan a route through a zoo to visit 6 of 12 possible locations.

There are:

• specified starting and finishing points

• restrictions on how many times particular paths can be used.

This requires:

• planning

• organisation

• inhibition.

The child cannot simply move directly toward whichever location looks convenient. They must consider the whole route and its restrictions.

This is therefore closer to a real-world task such as planning an efficient journey while obeying rules.

22. Zoo Map Test 2 - crucial comparison condition

Zoo Map Test 2 is the low-demand version.

Instead of independently constructing the route, the child is given a written plan and asked to follow it.

This distinction is extremely important.

Zoo Map 1

You plan the route yourself.

High executive demand.

Zoo Map 2

You follow a route that has already been planned.

Lower executive demand.

Why have both?

Imagine a child performs badly on Zoo Map 1.

There are at least two possibilities:

Possibility A: They understand the task but cannot organise and plan an effective route.

Possibility B: They did not properly understand the instructions.

Zoo Map 2 helps distinguish these.

If they can successfully follow the written route in Test 2 but struggled to construct one independently in Test 1, this provides stronger evidence that the problem lies with planning/organisation rather than basic comprehension.

Exam takeaway

Zoo Map Test 2 facilitates interpretation of Test 1 by helping exclude comprehension difficulties as the explanation for errors.

23. Six Part Test

The Six Part Test is particularly interesting because it requires the child to manage their own behaviour across several competing tasks.

The child has six tasks grouped into pairs.

The instructions include:

Do something from all six parts.

But:

Don't do something from the same colour one after the other.

There is also a time limit, illustrated as five minutes in the materials.

The child therefore needs to decide:

• which task to start;

• how long to spend on it;

• when to switch;

• what to do next;

• whether all tasks have been attempted;

• whether they are following the rules.

Processes assessed

• planning

• organisation

• task scheduling

• performance monitoring

• inhibition.

Why is this particularly executive?

The examiner does not simply tell the child:

"Do task 1, then task 2, then task 3."

Instead, the child must organise their own behaviour.

This captures an essential feature of everyday executive functioning: deciding how to structure your actions when somebody else is not structuring them for you.

24. DEX-C

The Dysexecutive Questionnaire for Children (DEX-C) accompanies the BADS-C.

It is a 20-item Likert-scaled questionnaire completed by a:

• caregiver and/or

• teacher.

This provides information about executive difficulties outside the formal testing environment.

That is important because test performance and everyday executive functioning may not correspond perfectly.

A child could perform well in a quiet, structured assessment but struggle substantially with organisation or inhibition in a busy classroom.

25. D-KEFS versus BADS-C

This distinction is especially useful to understand conceptually.

They therefore provide different but complementary information.

26. The central problem: experimental control vs ecological validity

This brings everything together.

D-KEFS strength

The D-KEFS tries to isolate cognitive processes.

For example:

Trail Making

motor speed → number sequencing → letter sequencing → number-letter switching

allows you to ask whether the additional switching demand produces disproportionate difficulty.

Similarly:

Colour-Word Interference

basic colour naming → word reading → inhibition → inhibition + switching

progressively adds executive demands.

This gives greater experimental control.

But experimental control creates a problem

Real life does not isolate executive functions.

A child completing schoolwork may simultaneously need:

attention + planning + inhibition + working memory + switching + self-monitoring + organisation.

Therefore, performance on a tightly controlled test may not predict everyday behaviour perfectly.

BADS-C strength

The BADS-C tries to increase ecological validity by creating tasks in which the individual has greater responsibility for organising behaviour.

Examples:

• How would you systematically search a field for lost keys?

• How would you plan a route through a zoo?

• How can you remove a cork from a tube?

• How will you organise six competing tasks within a limited period?

These are closer to the kinds of open-ended problems encountered in everyday life.

27. Why one executive-function test is never the whole answer

An executive-function test should not automatically be interpreted as:

"This child has good executive functioning."

or:

"This child has poor executive functioning."

Executive functioning is multifaceted, and individual tests depend on multiple underlying processes.

For example, poor Trail Making performance could involve:

• processing speed

• motor speed

• visual attention

• sequencing

• switching

• inhibition.

Poor verbal fluency could involve:

• language ability

• processing speed

• rule maintenance

• fluency

• inhibition.

Poor Tower performance could involve:

• planning

• problem solving

• inhibition

• maintaining cognitive set.

Therefore interpretation requires examining the pattern across conditions and tests, together with behavioural observations and real-world functioning.

28. High-yield test → function associations

These are worth learning extremely well.

29. Key exam principles to remember

1. Executive functioning is multifaceted.

There is no single executive ability. Planning, inhibition, switching, flexibility, problem solving and fluency are related but distinguishable.

2. Executive tests are not process-pure.

A "planning test" may also require inhibition, processing speed, attention and problem solving.

3. D-KEFS uses contrasting conditions.

Simpler baseline conditions help determine whether poor performance on a more complex condition genuinely reflects the additional executive demand.

4. Do not interpret an isolated low score too simplistically.

For example, slow Number-Letter Switching could partly reflect generally slow motor or processing speed.

5. D-KEFS has nine stand-alone tests and no overall composite score.

Tests can therefore be selected according to the clinical question.

6. D-KEFS scaled scores have mean = 10 and SD = 3.

7. Traditional EF tests may have limited ecological validity.

A highly structured one-to-one assessment does not recreate the competing demands and distractions of everyday life.

8. BADS-C tries to address ecological validity.

Its tasks require more independent planning, organisation, monitoring and problem solving.

9. Compare high-demand and control conditions.

Zoo Map 1 vs Zoo Map 2 is an excellent example: independently planning a route versus following a provided route.

10. Executive assessment should consider everyday behaviour alongside test scores.

A child may perform normally under highly structured testing conditions while experiencing substantial executive problems at school or home.

The big picture

The easiest way to connect everything is:

Executive functions = goal-directed control of behaviour.

↓

D-KEFS asks:
Which particular cognitive processes may be contributing to the person's executive difficulties?

It uses structured tasks and contrasting conditions to investigate processes such as inhibition, switching, planning, fluency and concept formation.

↓

Problem:
Structured testing can make executive functioning easier because the examiner provides the goal, rules and structure.

↓

BADS-C asks:
How well can the child organise and regulate their own behaviour in more realistic, open-ended situations?

↓

Therefore, the strongest neuropsychological interpretation comes from considering specific cognitive processes + patterns across test conditions + behavioural observations + everyday functioning, rather than treating any single executive-function score as a complete measure of the child's executive abilities.