D-KEFS Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System

What is the D-KEFS Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System?
Developed by Dean Delis, Edith Kaplan and Joel Ramer, Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) was designed in the span of 10 years and was released in 2001. This system is a neuropsychological test curated to evaluate verbal and non-verbal different types of executive functions. This psychometric test system comprises of nine separate stand-alone tests. Due to this, D-KEFS does not provide a combined assessment result of the participant’s performance in the test and provide separate results.

What Is The Purpose Of D-KEFS?
D-KEFS is the first compilation of tests curated for the individual assessment and evaluation of executive functions. Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System provides assessment and evaluation of executive functions like inhibition, flexibility in thinking, problem-solving skills, planning, creativity, abstract thinking, concept formation and impulse control in both spatial and verbal aspects. It is a nationally standardized medium of assessment of executive functions in both, adults and children from the age of eight and eighty-nine. The nine assessment tests are designed in a manner to produce efficient and accurate results in both scenarios when it is administered individually or together in a group.

D-KEFS offers a cognitive approach, which is the catalyst for examiners to produce and evaluate the clinical findings on executive functioning of the participant via analyzing the examinee’s performance in various sections of the test in an organized way.

Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System’s nine independent test are apt to evaluate the executive functions in the following sectors:

1. The Trail Making Test –This calculates the ability to think flexibly on visual-motor sequencing tasks. Consisting of 5 trials: visual scanning, letter sequencing, number sequencing, motor-speed and switching between number and letter. TMT differentiates the deficits of visual scanning and mental sequencing from deficits in control and cognitive flexibility.
2. The Verbal Fluency Test – This measures fluency in the letter, category and switching between categories.
3. The Design Fluency Test – This evaluates a person’s problem-solving behavior, creativity, fluency in producing patterns, while adhering to the rules of the task without repeating the designs.
4. The Color-Word Interference Test – This calculates the potential to give a firm and natural verbal response
5. The Proverb Test – This evaluates a person’s capability to contribute fresh ideas verbally
6. The Word Context Test – This assesses a person’s ability to deduct reasoning, flexible thinking and utilizing information.
7. The Sorting Test – This measures flexible thinking in conceptual tasks, problem-solving skills and verbal and non-verbal concept building skills.
8. The Tower Test – Calculates impulsiveness and reasoning and planning in the spatial modality.
9. The Twenty Question Test – Evaluates the skill to construct abstract, categorize, and answer no/yes questions

D-KEFS was not only designed to be used by clinics, but also in schools by psychologists. It aids to detect the impact of deficits on an individual’s performance. Therefore, performance in D-KEFS can be used as the foundation to build coping strategies or rehabilitation modules. Schools can benefit from it to use as a tool to measure intelligence and other skills. Various benefits and a comprehensive review of all the domains verify the significance of D-KEFS not only as a clinical tool but also in the field of frontal-lobe functions as a research instrument.