It has recently been recognized that adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a valid disorder (Gadow & Weiss, 2001). Much less is known, however, about the assessment of ADHD, and about the functional impairments associated with ADHD, in adults compared to children. The objective of the present study was to characterize the functional impairments in DSM-IV diagnosed ADHD adults compared to community control adults and clinic-referred adults reporting symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and/or impulsivity who did not meet symptom thresholds for the disorder. Method. The sample for this study consisted of 120 adults: 47 adults with ADHD, 43 clinic-referred adults who did not meet criteria for ADHD, and 30 community control adults. All were assessed with a comprehensive battery assessing psychiatric, cognitive, school, and driving impairment. Results. ADHD adults showed significantly more impairment than community control adults on all outcome measures. ADHD adults had subtle cognitive deficits, and higher rates of lifetime conduct problems compared to clinic-comparison adults. ADHD adults did not differ reliably from clinic-comparison adults on measures of internalizing disorders, school problems, or driving impairment. Clinic-comparison adults showed significantly more impairment than community control adults on measures of psychiatric functioning and school impairment. Conclusions. DSM-IV diagnosed ADHD adults show a pattern of clinical features that mirrors well-documented findings among children with the disorder, and show significantly greater impairment than do community control adults. Adults meeting some, but not all, criteria for ADHD fall in between ADHD adults and community control adults, and may warrant treatment. Our results highlight the importance of assessing ADHD in adults in a manner that attends to the potential reduced sensitivity of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for use in adult populations (Faraon

Objective. To examine the profile of executive function (EF) performance in children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as function of their subtypes and comorbid disorders. Methods. Two hundred and eighteen, 6-12 year old children clinically diagnosed with ADHD were characterised according to their clinical profile. Various EF domains were assessed while children were not on medication. General cognitive performance was assessed using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Results. 54.1% of children were diagnosed with combined subtype, 34.9% with inattentive subtype and 11% with hyperactive subtype. Significant age difference was found in ADHD subtype distribution and significant age and IQ difference was found in EF performance. After controlling for age and IQ no association was found between EF and ADHD subtypes or EF and comorbid disorders. Conclusion. These results indicate that age and IQ play an important role in cognitive task performance.

South Africa is a country with tremendous diversity. Previously, many learners who experienced barriers to learning and development were excluded from the education system, preventing them from meeting their educational needs. With the implementation of inclusive education, barriers to learning and development are no longer seen to reside primarily within the individual learner, but instead emphasis is placed on transforming the education system to accommodate a variety of learning needs. Many learners in South Africa display symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which frequently affects their learning and development. In some instances very little is being done to accommodate such learners to ensure that they are given the opportunity to develop to their full potential, as many educators continue to view these learners negatively, and fail to question the effect that they themselves may have upon the learners’ development. The implementation of inclusive education, however, ought to create a space in schools where educators can support learners with ADHD in a unique manner and assist them to develop to their full potential. It is on the basis of this acknowledgement and commitment of support by Education White Paper 6 that this research project was conceived, to explore how grade three learners with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder experience the support provided by their educators. A qualitative approach was employed in the study and participants were selected through purposive sampling. As the primary participants were young learners, the data was obtained through the use of arts-based (collage) focus group interviews. Individual interviews were also used to gather additional data from the learners’ educators. The data from both the learners with ADHD and their educators was then transcribed. After a thorough analysis, using an open-coding technique, the findings clearly indicated that attempts are being made to implement the policy of inclusive education within schools. Educators and staff are beginning to value the diversity of learners, and evidently are attempting to make adjustments to cater for the individual needs of learners and promote their successful learning and development. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This study examined three areas related to attention in primary school-aged children to answer the following questions: Are there a distinct neuropsychological differences for young children referred by teachers as lacking in attention compared to those not lacking in attention? Are there advantages to using neuropsychological measures of attention over behaviour rating scales and observations in preschool or early grade school population? Can these same neuropsychological tools evaluate the effectiveness of music with children that have attention problems? / There were 24 participants in this study, 12 children rated as having attention problems by their teacher and 12 children in the control group. Participants age ranged from 5 years 0 months to 6 years 11 months. All the children were of average intelligence, and were attending an English school or preschool within the greater Montreal Area. Participants served as their own controls for the music conditions. Participants were nested within group and order for the four treatment conditions. / Findings indicated that attention difficulties not only affect behaviour, attention, and inhibition, but also influence cognitive processes in language, memory, and visual perceptual abilities especially visual motor precision. Neuropsychological tests were useful in the assessment of children's attention difficulties and could be used to differentiate attention problems that are strictly behavioural from those that are more likely the result of neuropsychological deficits. For children with attention problems environment and music had limited effects on neuropsychological variables. Rock and roll increased children's ability to sustain visual attention if they were classified as having an attention problem. It did not have this effect for children without attention problems. Gross motor inhibition is also affected by rock and roll, but only for boys who have attention problems. Higher level interactions with gender were found in overall neuropsychological functioning and with respect to music. School based interventions must be based not only on behaviour but also on cognitive deficits; early intervention is important to this process.

Although the behavioral phenotype of disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) are well established, to date, few studies have assessed the association between the core cognitive characteristics implicated in each disorder. And fewer yet have addressed this in a sample of typically developing preschool and young school age children when such skills are developing and maturing. The present study focused on providing a typical trajectory of attentional and inhibitory performance alongside delay aversion and their association with naming speed, a basic cognitive process involved in the acquisition of later reading skills. Alongside the developmental characteristics of these cognitive domains, the results indicate an association between rapid naming deficits and poor attentional and inhibitory control. The results further suggest distinct association between attentional control, inhibitory control, naming speed and poor attention ratings. These findings have implications for pedagogical planning for children with ADHD and RD.

This study looked at facilitation, or improvement, of behavioral responses, such as quicker reaction times and improved accuracy in participants with subclinical attention deficits and a control group. Studies have looked at auditory and somatosensory (i.e., touch) stimuli and found that when presented simultaneously there were both neuronal benefits (Simon‐Dack & Teder‐Salejarvi, 2008) and behavioral benefits (Sperdin, Cappe,Foxe & Murray, 2009). The ability to attend to the stimulus is necessary for multisensory facilitation and when attention is not paid to both sensory inputs multisensory facilitation may not occur (Talsma & Woldorff, 2007). This study used a sustained-attention target task to compare how people with subclinical attention deficits and controls performing a multisensory integration task. Both populations performed faster in the multisensory condition than in the unisensory condition, but controls also saw an increase twice that of the increase for participants with subclinical attention deficits. This suggests a trend towards true behavioral facilitation in controls that would support the neuronal benefits found by past studies (Simon-Dack and Teder-Salejarvi, 2008). On the other hand, not seeing this trend in participants with subclinical attention deficits would suggest that even small attention deficits can interfere with multisensory facilitation. / Department of Psychological Science

Bakgrund: Personer med Attention- Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) har ofta svårigheter att hantera sin vardag på många olika plan. Arbetsterapeutisk behandling syftar till att underlätta det dagliga livet och därmed minska svårigheterna som personer med ADHD upplever i sin vardag. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva arbetsterapeutiska åtgärder samt dess effekt och betydelse för personer med personer med ADHD. Metod: Studien är en litteraturöversikt där både kvalitativ och kvantitativ forskning ingår. Sökningen efter aktuell forskning utfördes i databaserna Cinahl och PsycInfo. Totalt 11 artiklar uppfyllde urvalskriterierna. Interventionerna i studierna kategoriserades efter liknande innehåll. Resultat: Interventionskategorierna syftade på att förbättra den sociala och motoriska färdigheten, anpassa miljön, förändra aktivitetsutförandet och att ge psykoeduktiv behandling till omgivningen. Den främst använda interventionskategorin är social färdighetsträning och känslokontroll. Ett flertal av de arbetsterapeutiska interventionerna riktas samtidigt mot en eller flera kategorier, som en del av den arbetsterapeutiska behandlingen. Resultatet av denna studie visar att arbetsterapeutisk behandling kan minska svårigheterna från ADHD och hjälper klienterna i det dagliga livet. Slutsats: Betydelsen av en flerdimensionell arbetsterapeutisk behandling framkommer tydligt i denna studie. Även en enskild arbetsterapeutisk intervention har effekt och påverkan inom flera aktivitetsområden.

Some children exhibit inattentive, and perhaps also hyperactive and Impulsive behaviour In the classroom at a very frequent and severe level. These behavioural characteristics are reflected in the criteria for the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD have been found to achieve lower grades at school than their peers. This study investigated the extent to which pupils with severe ADHD symptoms, but not necessarily diagnosed with the condition, were at risk of similar academic outcomes. The effect of different teaching and classroom management strategies on the concentration and attention of these children were also explored. The reading and mathematics achievements of a large sample of pupils were assessed at the start of reception, the end of reception and then again at the end of key stage 1. Class teachers assessed the behaviour of these pupils at the end of reception using a rating scale based upon the diagnostic criteria for ADHD in Version 4 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).The proportion of children with severe ADHD symptoms was found to be similar to previous estimates of the prevalence of children with each sub-type of ADHD derived from teacher assessments, but higher than the rates of prevalence of ADHD published by the American Psychiatric Association (1994).The reading and mathematics attainment and value-added of children with severe ADHD symptoms were found to be educationally and statistically significantly lower than their peers. The data replicated previous studies that had investigated the achievement of children with ADHD.

No description available.

Specific strategic control (executive) processes were investigated in 17 boys with ADHD and 18 normal control boys, ages 9--13 years, using a paradigm combining the Warned Reaction Time and Stimulus-Response Compatibility tasks. The length and constancy of the preparatory interval (PI) were manipulated in order to study preparatory processes associated with prediction and temporal adjustment. Compared to control boys, boys with ADHD had particular difficulty with long, fixed, and short, variable preparatory intervals, suggesting problems with the strategic control of response preparation and adaptation to temporal changes. Heart rate deceleratory patterns recorded during the PI indicated that impaired active, accurate, prediction played a major role in the preparatory deficit. The study also manipulated compatibility and predictability of response demands in order to assess inhibitory processes and the ability to shift flexibly between changing response demands. Boys with ADHD had particular difficulty shifting flexibly between compatible and incompatible responding, indicating a problem with strategic response adjustment. Findings also suggested possible difficulties with the allocation of consistent, effortful attention and the inhibition of inappropriate responding. In addition, interactions were also observed in the ADHD group between the strategic and inhibitory measures. Overall, the findings supported Douglas's (1988; 1999) conceptualization of ADHD as involving a self-regulatory deficiency consisting of interacting strategic, effortful, and inhibitory components. The study also addressed the question of whether Sanders' (1983) cognitive-energetic model, which has been used widely in studies of ADHD, can deal adequately with the cognitive difficulties associated with ADHD. The findings indicated that the model has not been developed adequately to deal with the kinds of higher level processing deficits that were identified in the ADHD group. In addition, in