Developmental Changes in Attention and Comprehension Among Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

• Published in: Child development Vol. 80; no. 6; pp. 1842 - 1855
• Main Authors: Bailey, Ursula L., Lorch, Elizabeth P., Milich, Richard, Charnigo, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2009; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Age Differences; Age Factors; Attention; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnosis; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology; Attention deficit disorders. Hyperactivity; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Biological and medical sciences; Causality; Child; Child clinical studies; Child Development; Children; Children & youth; Cognitive development; Comparative Analysis; Comprehension; Developmental Stages; Elementary school students; Empirical Articles; Factual data; Family studies; Female; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Medications; Mental Recall; Parents; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading comprehension; Recall; Recall (Psychology); Reference Values; Televised; Television; Television Viewing; Toys; Visual attention; Visual Perception; Visual Stimuli; Human; Verbal comprehension; Language; Memory; Perception; Cognition; Recall; Attention disorder with hyperactivity; Cognitive development; Experimental study; Visual attention; Child
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01371.x

Changes in visual attention and story comprehension for children (N = 132) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comparison peers were examined. Between the ages of 7 and 9 (Phase 1) and approximately 21 months later (Phase 2), children viewed 2 televised stories: 1 in the presence of toys and 1 in their absence. Both groups of children showed developmental increases in visual attention and stable group differences over time. Deficits in comprehension among children with ADHD, however, increased over time. Whereas comparison children's recall of factual and causal information increased over time in both viewing conditions, children with ADHD showed no developmental improvement in recall of factual information in the toys-present condition and no improvement in recall of causal relations in either viewing condition.