Neurocognitive Profile in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Dyslexia

Abstract

Objective: The current study aimed to examine the neurocognitive deficits of children with ADHD and/or Developmental Dyslexia (DD) using neurocognitive tests. Material and Methods: The participants of the study consisted of children diagnosed with Dyslexia (N=33), ADHD (N=32), and DD+ADHD (N=37) who applied to the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University. The control group consists of 30 primary school children aged 7-11 with similar sociodemographic data. K-SADS-PL is used for the DSM-5 diagnoses of the patients and the control group. Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, Verbal Cancellation Test, and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) were used to evaluate the cognitive functions of the groups in detail. Results: Children with ADHD and/or Dyslexia were evaluated to have significant deficits in all neurocognitive measures such as reaction inhibition, selective attention, sustained attention, shifting attention, and visuospatial short-term memory compared to the healthy control group (p<0.001). Children with ADHD-only revealed the most significant weaknesses in reaction inhibition, and visuospatial short-term memory measures (p<0.001). The comorbid group exhibited significant weakness on almost all neurocognitive measures compared with the control group, but did not perform significantly lower than the ADHD-only and Dislexia-only groups. Conclusion: It has been shown that children with ADHD and/or Dyslexia have multiple neurocognitive deficits, and our study supports the multiple cognitive deficit hypothesis.