Identifying Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder with the WISC-R and the Stroop Color and Word Test

Twenty-nine children with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) were compared to a group of 21 emotionally disturbed (ED) children and a control group (CO) of 20 nonproblem children. The meaures used in the comparison were the 12 subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT). The results showed that the CO group was superior to the ADHD and ED groups and that the ED group performed better than the ADHD group on most of the variables. A stepwise discriminant function analysis showed that similar WISC-R subtests differentiated between the ADHD group and the ED and CO groups. Two measures of the SCWT helped in discriminating between the ADHD and ED groups, but not between the ADHD and CO groups. The authors discuss the meaning of these findings and their contribution to better understanding of the ADHD group, its specific cognitive processing, and its problems.     

Patterns of performance on the Stroop Color and Word Test in children with learning,attentional, and psychiatric disabilities

The study presented here investigated the performance of children with learning, psychiatric, and attentional disabilities on the Stroop Color and Word Test. Forty‐three children diagnosed with a full battery of tests as learning disabled (LD [reading]) in grades K through 6 were matched on age, gender, ethnicity, and grade with 43 normal controls. They were also matched with groups of 43 children with psychiatric disorders and 43 children with attentional problems. All subjects were given the Stroop test, which took about 4 minutes per subject. The results indicated clear differences between the groups, with the LD and the psychiatric/attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) groups generating unique profiles different from the normal controls. The children with LD showed slower reading speed and less interference, while the subjects with ADHD and diagnoses showed impairment only on the Color‐Word score. A discriminant analysis using the three basic Stroop scales was able to significantly differentiate the LD group from the non–learning‐disabled (NLD) group (89%) and the LD group from a joint Psychiatric/ADHD group (86%). However, results were poorer for differentiating a joint LD/ADHD group from the NLD group (68%) and the LD from the ADHD group (59%). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Language skills,mathematical thinking,and achievement motivation in children with ADHD,disruptive behavior disorders,and normal controls

Recent models of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) suggest that the association between achievement motivation and school performance may be stronger in children with ADHD than in typically developing children. Therefore, the present study investigated associations between achievement motivation and performance on language skills and mathematical thinking in children with ADHD (n = 23; M = 9.4 years, SD = 1.1 years; 78% boys) and two matched control groups, i.e., a clinical control group (children with related disruptive behavior disorders; DBD), and a non-clinical control group (NC). Results confirmed stronger associations between achievement motivation and performance on receptive language and mathematical thinking in children with ADHD than in NC. Specifically, performance of children with ADHD was equal to NC for highly motivated ADHD children. These results underscore the importance of achievement motivation as a more essential key factor in the performance of children with ADHD as compared to typically developing children.     

First impressions formed of boys with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder

The present study examined the first impressions that are formed of boys with either learning disabilities (LD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), or both disorders, in an effort to understand better why they are so often unpopular with and rejected by their peers. The intent of the study was to remedy methodological problems of previous first-impression studies to determine whether devaluation of boys with either LD or ADD after a brief exposure is a reliable and valid finding. To this end, physical attractiveness data were gathered, children were employed as judges, subgroups of stimulus children were formed, and situational demands were varied. Results indicated that the boys with either LD or ADD were devalued relative to controls on a variety of dependent variables, including popularity. Both situational demands, as well as judgments of physical attractiveness, appeared to play a role in accounting for these differences.     

Perception of boys’ mother-son social interactions: Disruptive boys’ behaviors and involvement in learning tasks

This study focused on the relationship between social perception and children’s involvement in learning tasks. The interaction between disruptive boys’ (n=32) perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother, the mother’s behavior (verbal and physical intrusion) and the child’s involvement in learning tasks was observed in a laboratory setting. Boys were asked to solve easy and difficult tasks on a personnal computer under the supervision of their mother. Observations of mother-child interactions showed that disruptive boys with a negative perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother, were less involved in the difficult task than boys who had a positive perception. Mothers of the boys with a negative perception showed more verbal intrusions in the easy task and more physical intrusions in the difficult task than the mothers of boys with a positive perception. Mothers’ verbal intrusion, physical intrusion and boys’ involvement in the task discriminated 75% of the boys with a negative social perception. These results seem to indicate that disruptive boys do not constitute an homogeneous group and that a significant variation in their involvement in a learning task is related to their perception of the competence attributed to them by their mother.     

Disruptive Behaviour in Non-Referred Mainstream School Children,Aged Seven to Nine: A psychophysiological contribution

Data are summarised relating resting heart/pulse rate to teachers' ratings of disruptive behaviour in a sample of 206 non-referred children, aged 7-9 years, attending mainstream schools and not subject to specialist attention. Low base heart rate (BHR) was found to be associated with teachers' ratings of disruptive behaviour, confirming similar earlier research based on children aged 11-16 years. The findings are discussed in relation to psychophysiology and child development and with reference to several theoretical frameworks, identifying the need for further research.     

Sensitivity of Four Subtests of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA‐Ch) to Stimulant Medication in Children with ADHD

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were examined on four subtests of the Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA‐Ch) when on and off stimulant medication. Performance was assessed relative to 18 individually age‐matched controls. Children with ADHD performed significantly worse on TEA‐Ch measures when off compared to when on stimulant medication. This was found in both predominantly inattentive (n = 6) and combined inattentive and hyperactive‐impulsive (n = 12) subtypes. The age‐matched controls significantly improved with repeated testing on most TEA‐Ch measures. Significant differences were found between the unmedicated children with ADHD and age‐matched controls on sustained attention (Score! and Walk Don’t Walk) and attention control measures (Same and Opposite Worlds). When the ADHD group was on stimulant medication, with the exception of the Walk Don’t Walk subtest, no significant differences were found between them and the age‐matched controls. Unlike the TEA‐Ch subtests, the significant differences between the two groups on the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) subtests remained when attentional status was altered in the children with ADHD. The study supports further investigations of the TEA‐Ch as a measure sensitive to changes in stimulant medication in children with ADHD.     

Three types of conduct‐problem boys in an educational setting

Third grade boys identified as being disruptive to on‐going classroom activities were grouped according to their teacher's ratings of their behaviour characteristics as unco‐operative (Type I), easily flustered (Type II), and unco‐operative and easily flustered (Type III). No significant differences in performance existed between types on individually administered tests of perception and psycholinguistic abilities. On group administered tests of academic achievement and intelligence, the uncooperative boys did significantly better than the other two types. It was also determined that the easily flustered boys did substantially better on individually administered measures of IQ. than they did on group administered measures. These findings suggest that teachers should avoid using group tests to evaluate disruptive boys they perceive as being easily flustered.     

Effects of information on perceptions of stimulant medication efficacy for treatment of attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

A study on the perceptions of stimulant medications prescribed for children with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) was conducted. Students, enrolled in introductory level psychology courses at a midwestern university participated voluntarily in the study (N= 36). After viewing a video that simulated the feelings a child with AD/HD experiences, participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups. The popular information group read an article on AD/HD similar to that which is most often presented to the public. This article included personal testimonials and lacked a discussion of side effects and areas where the medications have not been demonstrated to be efficacious. The scientific information group read a page of information that was compiled from the scientific literature and included both the positive effects, side effects, and areas where the medication has not been demonstrated to be efficacious. All participants then completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the efficacy of the medications. A second scale measured participants' likelihood of recommending the use of stimulant medications for children with suspected AD/HD. Two 2×2 between‐subjects ANOVA's were employed. There were main effects for the type of article that was read, but no main effects for gender of participant. No significant interactions were found. There were no differences found between the gender of participants and their perceptions of stimulant medications based on the reading material presented to them. However, the type of information presented to the participants did influence their view of the efficacy of stimulant medications. In addition, the type of reading material also influenced the participants' view of the safety and recommended use of stimulant medications prescribed for children with AD/HD. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Locus and nature of perceptual phonological deficit in Spanish children with reading disabilities

The aims of this study were (a) to determine whether Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD) show a speech perception deficit and (b) to explore the locus and nature of this perceptive deficit. A group of 29 children with RD, 41 chronological age-matched controls, and 27 reading ability-matched younger controls were tested on tasks of speech perception. The effect of linguistic unit (word vs. syllable) and type of phonetic contrast (voicing, place and manner of articulation) were analyzed in terms of the number of errors and the response time. The results revealed a speech perception deficit in Spanish children with RD that was independent of the type of phonetic contrast and of linguistic unit.     

Attention deficit disorder and specific reading disability: separate but often overlapping disorders

Within a large (N = 182) heterogeneous sample of clinic-referred children with DSM-III-diagnosed attention deficit disorder (ADD), three behavioral subgroups were identified via cluster analysis of teacher ratings: 40% of the children had ADD with hyperactivity (ADDH), 30% had ADD with hyperactivity and aggressivity (ADDHA), and 31% had ADD without hyperactivity or aggressivity. Proportionally more girls were in the ADD-only subgroup. Over half the sample (n = 94) were poor readers, with 82 meeting discrepancy criteria for specific reading disability (RD). Proportionately more boys than girls met the RD criteria (9.2:1.0), whereas the sex ratio of males to females for the whole sample was 5.1 to 1.0. Focusing just on white males, the three behavioral subgroups were significantly different on convergent validity measures, such as other teacher ratings, parent ratings, and interview-elicited ratings of externalizing behavior, but were not different on such divergent validity measures as IQ and achievement scores, self-ratings, and laboratory performance tasks. Boys in the ADD sample who did not meet criteria for RD had significantly higher IQs than those who did, but subgroups with and without RD still differed significantly on WRAT-R reading and spelling scores with IQ covaried out. Both groups with and without RD could be differentiated from a control group on laboratory measures of sustained attention and impulse control. Methylphenidate benefited all subgroups equally, whether RD or not, and whether given a low (0.3 mg/kg) or high (0.6 mg/kg) dose.     

FOCUS ON PRACTICE: Difficulties in initiating and sustaining peer friendships: perspectives on students diagnosed with AD/HD

In this article, Myra Taylor, research fellow, and Professor Stephen Houghton of the Centre for Child and Adolescent Related Disorders at the University of Western Australia, report theory generated from interviews with teachers, students and mothers residing in Perth, Western Australia, on how children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) initiate and sustain peer relationships. An initial review of the three sample groups’ respective perspectives reveals that children with AD/HD exhibit three distinct socialisation patterns: a socially integrated pattern (that is, having three or more ongoing friendship pairings with peers); a marginal integrated pattern (that is, having two or less ongoing friendship pairings with peers); and a socially isolated pattern (that is, having no, or infrequent, friendship pairings with peers). Both teacher and maternal perspectives are similar in so far as both perceive children with attention deficit disorders to have marginal to non‐existent friendships. Students with AD/HD perceive themselves, however, as having strongly to marginally formed friendships with their peers. Myra Taylor and Stephen Houghton explore suggestions that differences between adult and child perspectives relate to diagnostic status, age and developmental maturity. They identify opportunities for further research arising out of their work and indicate that a wider evidence base will be needed before robust recommendations for practice can be made.     

Disruptiveness, Friends' Characteristics, and Delinquency in Early Adolescence: A Test of Two Competing Models of Development

This study tested 2 competing models of friends' influence on the development of delinquency in disruptive boys. In so diong, we examined whether highly disruptive, moderately diseuptive, moderately conforming, and highly conforming boys' delinquecy increased or decreased depeniding on their friends' characteristics. A sample of 868 boys was classified into the 4 groups according to teacher tating at ages 11 and 12. Each group was then subdivided by mutual friends' peer-rate aggressiveness-disturbance at the same ages: aggressive-disturbing friends, average friends, nonaggressive-nondisturbing friends, and no friends. Subgroups were mext compared on self-reported delinquency at age 13 while controlling for average self-reported delinquency and socioeconomic variables at ages 11 and 12. Results indicate that moderately disruptive boys with aggressivedisturbive friends were more delinquent at age 13 than other subgroups of moderately disruptive boys. Highly disrupitve and confroming boys, however, were unaffected by their friends' characteristics. We conclude that the results partially support each theoretical model, suggesting that both individual characteristics and deviant peer association might play causal roles.     

Cognitive and academic skills in children with sex chromosome abnormalities

Forty-six unselected children with various sex chromosome abnormalities (14 boys with 47,XXY, 4 boys with 47,XYY, 11 girls with 47,XXX, 9 girls with 45,X, and 8 girls with SCA mosaicism), identified through the consecutive chromosome screening of 40,000 Denver newborns, have been followed developmentally and evaluated in a protocol that included intellectual, language, and achievement testing. Controls consisted of 12 chromosomally normal males and 13 chromosomally normal females who were siblings of various propositi. While most SCA children were not mentally retarded, most of the nonmosaic propositi (31/37) received special education help for learning problems. In general, nonmosaic males were less severely affected than nonmosaic females, who demonstrated significantly reduced mean IQ scores on both Wechsler IQ tests. The inference that learning disorders were genetically mediated in this group was further supported by karyotype-specific findings. 47,XXY boys tended to demonstrate lower verbal skills and a specific reading disability. 47,XXX girls, while more globally impaired, demonstrated evidence of a specific weakness in language skills. 45,X girls tended to be globally impaired, but demonstrated a contrasting specific deficit in spatial thinking skills. Mosaic girls were not significantly different than controls on any measure, an outcome likely occurring because of the low percentage of aneuploid cells in these propositae. Variability was present in each group, and no single profile can characterize all children with any specific SCA. The presence of SCA, therefore, must be viewed as a risk factor creating a tendency towards LD but interacting with a host of other genetic and environmental forces to create a range of phenotypic outcomes.     

Emotion,understanding, and social skills among boys at risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

There is growing interest in the role of emotional competence in middle school children's adjustment and functioning, yet many populations remain underresearched. Few studies have explored the emotional competence, especially emotion understanding, of children with, or at risk of, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even fewer have examined the role emotion understanding plays in these children's social skills. Our study investigates a profile of the emotion understanding capacities of Israeli boys at risk of ADHD and evaluates its association with their social skills. One hundred and fifty‐two boys (grades 4–6) were each assigned to an at‐risk (n = 66) or comparison (n = 86) group based on their scores on an ADHD symptoms questionnaire (Conners Rating System–Revised). The two groups were matched on age, socioeconomic status and class, and school environment. Group comparisons revealed that relative to their non–at‐risk counterparts, at‐risk boys demonstrated less mature emotion understanding. Finally, our findings indicate that poor emotion understanding plays a more notable role in the social functioning of at‐risk than non–at‐risk children. This study's contribution to the understanding and school treatment of children with ADHD emotional and social competencies is discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Is season of birth related to developmental dyslexia?

Different moderators/mediators of risk are involved in developmental dyslexia (DD), but data are inconsistent. We explored the prevalence of season of birth and its association with gender and age of school entry in an Italian sample of dyslexic children compared to an Italian normal control group. The clinical sample included 498 children (345 boys, mean age 10.3 ± 2.1 years) with DD, the control sample 1,276 children (658 boys, mean age 10.8 ± 2.2 years) from four elementary schools from the same urban area, and with the same socio-economic status level. A prevalence of birth in autumn was found among children with DD compared to controls (34% versus 24%, p < 0.0001). Children with DD were more frequently males (p < 0.0001) and had a lower mean age of school entry (p < 0.0001). Regarding the distribution of ages, 11.4% of children with DD, but none of the subjects in the control group, started school before 5.7 years. Therefore, greater risk of DD was related to age of school entry (OR = 2.72), gender (OR = 2.16), and season of birth (OR = 1.21). Significant interactions between boys with DD born in autumn, and correct school of entry (OR = 2.56) were joint predictors of higher risk of DD. The association between birth in autumn and DD may be explained by the earlier age of school entry, which may be a critical element in the youngest children with DD or at risk to DD. Whether Italian school policy is oriented to anticipate the school entry, a closer detection of early learning disorders and associated risk factors (familial load, specific language disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) should be warranted.     

Retrieval and evaluation of symbolic information in dyslexia

Summary A group of 35 reading disabled boy and 35 matched controls were studied over a two-year period in order to evaluate the validity of traditional hypotheses about the causes of serious reading impairment in preadolescent boys for whom the common disadvantages of economic privation, bilingualism and emotional instability were absent. The popular hypothesis of perceptual deficit was not supported by the data, although the finding that most reading disabled boys have a short-term memory deficit was affirmed. The most important new findings was that about one-fourth of the reading disabled boys had serious difficulty in maintaining an efficient set to process and/or evaluate information, especially when that information was contained in oral speech. This research was supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. We thank Michelle Shal and Susan Grant for their participation in this work.     

学习障碍儿童行为问题分析

采用Achenbach儿童行为量表对儿童行为进行问卷测评。对学习障碍与学习优秀儿童的行为问题进行了对比分析,寻求儿童学习障碍的行为制约因素。结果显示(1)学习障碍男童在多动和违纪两个因子上评分显著高于学习优秀男童;在社交退缩和攻击两个因子上,两组儿童得分的差异接近显著水平;学习障碍女童在多动、违纪和攻击因子上的得分显著高于学习优秀女童;在抑郁和社交退缩两项因子上得分的差异接近显著水平。(2)多动与攻击、违纪等多个问题行为存在显著的相关。由此得出结论:学习障碍儿童存在较多的行为问题,这些问题行为都是影响他们学习成绩的因素。其中,多动是导致儿童学习障碍的重要原因之一。对此,可采用无条件积极关注,改变认知等措施来帮助学习障碍儿童矫正不良行为。     

Visual search deficits are independent of magnocellular deficits in dyslexia

The aim of this study was to investigate the theory that visual magnocellular deficits seen in groups with dyslexia are linked to reading via the mechanisms of visual attention. Visual attention was measured with a serial search task and magnocellular function with a coherent motion task. A large group of children with dyslexia (n = 70) had slower serial search times than a control group of typical readers. However, the effect size was small (η _p² = 0.05) indicating considerable overlap between the groups. When the dyslexia sample was split into those with or without a magnocellular deficit, there was no difference in visual search reaction time between either group and controls. The data suggest that magnocellular sensitivity and visual spatial attention weaknesses are independent of one another. They also provide more evidence of heterogeneity in response to psychophysical tasks in groups with dyslexia. Alternative explanations for poor performance on visual attention tasks are proposed along with avenues for future research.