The purpose of this study was to find some distinguishing characteristics with regard to developmental cognitive processes between children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who had learning problems and children with
ADHD
who did not have learning problems.
A total of 26 children between the ages of five and 12 who had ADHD were selected from the child psychiatric outpatient clinic at Hanyang university Hospital. Of the 26, 12 had learning problems and 14 did not. The Perception-Language Test, the
Academic
Performance Rating Scale (APRS) and the Home/School Situation Questionnaire-Revised (HSQ/SSQ) were administered to both groups. In addition, parent recordings were also collected. The two groups were compared with respect to developmental
cognitive
processes, practical academic performance, attention, developmental history, past medical history, family history and co-morbidity.
The 12 children with learning problems rated lower with respect to practical academic performance than the group without learning problems. In addition, those with learning problems showed evidence of mild pathologic findings that might predict
learning
disabilities. In the analysis of clinical variables, the ADHD children with learning problems were found to manifest other risk factors related to learning problems.
These results show that ADHD is closely correlated with learning problems. The findings also implicate that ADHD patients must be classified into subgroups by their symptoms.
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