The Comparison of Divided, Sustained and Selective Attention in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Children with Specific Learning Disorder and Normal Children

Authors

1 Department of Clinical Psychology, College of Human Science, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, IR Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Kharazmi University, Tehran, IR Iran

Abstract

Background: High incidence of learning disorders has caught the psychologists’ attention in recent years.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare divided, sustained and selective attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, children with a specific learning disorder and normal children.

Methods: The study was a descriptive, causal-comparative and fundamental research. The population consisted of all children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and children with specific learning psychology (SLD), aged 7 to 12 years old, who referred to counselingandpsychiatric clinics in Tehran in 2016, as well asnormalprimary school children. 36 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and 47 children with specific learning difficulties were selected through convenience sampling, and 43 ordinary primary school children with cluster-randomly sampling method. Continuous performance test, word color Stroop test and theWechsler scales were used as the instruments of the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics along with multivariate analysis of variance in Spss-21were used to analyze data.

Results: The results of this study showed that weakness in divided, selective and sustained attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and children with specific learning disorder is more than normal children (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between these variables in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and children with specific learning disorder (P < 0.01).

Conclusions: The results showed that the rate of comorbidity was very high in children with attention deficit - hyperactivity disorder and children with specific learning disorder.

Keywords

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

1.American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. ; 2013.
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
 
2. Miller M, Hinshaw SP. In: Encyclopedia of Neurological Sciences. Daroff RB, Aminoff MJ, editors. New York: Academic Press; 2014. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385157-4.00431-0
PMCid:PMC4163931
 
3. Seidman LJ. Neuropsychological functioning in people with ADHD across the lifespan. Clin Psychol Rev. 2006;26(4):466-85. [PubMed: 16473440].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2006.01.004
PMid:16473440
 
4. Habibzadeh A, Pourabdol S, Saravani S. The effect of emotion regulation training in decreasing emotion failures and self-injurious behaviors among students suffering from specific learning disorder (SLD). Med J Islam Repub Iran. 2015;29:279. [PubMed: 26793670].
 
5. Cowan N. The focus of attention as observed in visual working memory tasks: making sense of competing claims. Neuropsychologia. 2011;49(6):1401-6. [PubMed: 21277880].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.01.035
PMid:21277880 PMCid:PMC3095706
 
6. Pastor P, Reuben C, Duran C, Hawkins L. Association between diagnosed ADHD and selected characteristics among children aged 4-17 years: United States, 2011-2013. NCHS Data Brief. 2015(201):201. [PubMed: 25974000].
 
7. Itthipuripat S, Ester EF, Deering S, Serences JT. Sensory gain outperforms efficient readout mechanisms in predicting attention-related improvements in behavior. J Neurosci. 2014;34(40):13384-98. [PubMed: 25274817].
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2277-14.2014
PMid:25274817 PMCid:PMC4180474
 
8. Odegaard B, Wozny DR, Shams L. The effects of selective and divided attention on sensory precision and integration. Neurosci Lett. 2016;614:24-8. [PubMed: 26742638].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2015.12.039
PMid:26742638
 
9. Jongman SR, Meyer AS, Roelofs A. The Role of Sustained Attention in the Production of Conjoined Noun Phrases: An Individual Differences Study. PLoS One. 2015;10(9):e0137557. [PubMed: 26335441].
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137557
PMid:26335441 PMCid:PMC4559420
 
10. Homan HA. Understanding scientific method in behavioral sciences. Tehran: Samt; 2013.
 
11. Loring DW, Goldstein FC, Chen C, Drane DL, Lah JJ, Zhao L, et al. False-Positive Error Rates for Reliable Digit Span and Auditory Verbal Learning Test Performance Validity Measures in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Alzheimer Disease. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2016;31(4):313-31.
https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acw014
PMid:27084732 PMCid:PMC4876935
 
12. Sadeghi A, Rabeii M, Abedi MR. Validation and reliability of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children IV. Iran Psychol. 2010;7(28):377-86.
 
13. Bigorra A, Garolera M, Guijarro S, Hervas A. Long-term far-transfer effects of working memory training in children with ADHD: a randomized controlled trial. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2016;25(8):853-67. [PubMed: 26669692].
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0804-3
PMid:26669692
 
14. Rief S. How to reach and teach children with ADD/ADHD. John Wiley & Sons; 2005.
 
15. Fazzi E, Cattalini M, Orcesi S, Tincani A, Andreoli L, Balottin U, et al. Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome, a rare neurological disease in children: a new autoimmune disorder? Autoimmun Rev. 2013;12(4):506-9. [PubMed: 22940555].
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2012.08.012
PMid:22940555
 
16. Vetrayan J, Othman S, Victor Paulraj SJ. Case Series. J Atten Disord. 2017;21(2):168-79. [PubMed: 23529885].
https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713479665
PMid:23529885
 
17. Mazzocco MMM, Hanich LB. Math achievement, numerical processing, and executive functions in girls with Turner syndrome: Do girls with Turner syndrome have math learning disability? Learn Individ Differ. 2010;20(2):70-81.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2009.10.011
 
18. Wong C, Odom SL, Hume KA, Cox AW, Fettig A, Kucharczyk S, et al. Evidence-Based Practices for Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comprehensive Review. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015;45(7):1951-66. [PubMed: 25578338].
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2351-z
PMid:25578338
 
19. Bouck EC, Satsangi R, Doughty TT, Courtney WT. Virtual and concrete manipulatives: a comparison of approaches for solving mathematics problems for students with autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2014;44(1):180-93. [PubMed: 23743958].
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1863-2
PMid:23743958
 
20. Margari L, Buttiglione M, Craig F, Cristella A, de Giambattista C, Matera E, et al. Neuropsychopathological comorbidities in learning disorders. BMC Neurol. 2013;13:198. [PubMed: 24330722].
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-13-198
PMid:24330722 PMCid:PMC3878726
 
21. Pelham WJ, Gnagy EM, Sibley MH, Kipp HL, Smith BH, Evans SW, et al. Attributions and Perception of Methylphenidate Effects in Adolescents With ADHD. J Atten Disord. 2017;21(2):129-36. [PubMed: 23893533].
https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713493320
PMid:23893533
Razavi International Journal of Medicine
Volume 5, Issue 4
October 2017

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics