Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Questions continue to be raised about the language abilities of children who have a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Recent conceptualisations of ADHD and also of language difficulties have acknowledged that aspects of context may contribute to the manifestations of these complex conditions. In the past, investigations of the language of children who had a diagnosis of ADHD appear to have been hampered by reliance on models of language impairment that emphasised formally measured language abilities and largely disregarded the role of context. This thesis describes a study designed to test the hypothesis that important differences in language use exist between children who have a diagnosis of ADHD and their non-ADHD peers, when specific language impairment has been excluded. A second goal of the study was to investigate the impact of aspects of context, specifically text type and mode of expression, on the language use of these children. The study was community-based. Attempts were made to match the children for age (eight to twelve years), gender, level of education, and socio-economic status. Two standardised language tests were administered to each child, and only children who had achieved results within the normal range were accepted into the study. The sample group consisted of eleven children who had a previous diagnosis of ADHD, and eleven control children. Discourse analysis based on a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach was used to describe spoken and written samples from three different examples of text type that were created by each child. Comparisons were made for multiple variables, and any observed differences were examined using a combination of quantitative and descriptive techniques. The results showed differences between the groups for clause structure, thematic structure, macro textual organisation, lexico-grammar, behaviours surrounding spoken language, and conventions of written language. There were differences noted in the way the text type and the mode of expression appeared to affect the outcomes. The differences were discussed and interpreted as evidence of a greater degree of difficulty shown by the children with ADHD with regard to the organisation and complexity of their texts. Clinical implications suggest that careful linguistic analysis of spoken as well as written language of children with ADHD may be warranted even in the absence of the diagnosis of specific language impairment. Such analyses may not only identify potentially problematic areas with respect to language use within everyday contexts, but may also highlight areas where particular intervention may be beneficial.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/222164 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Mathers, Margaret |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright 2007 Margaret Mathers |
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