The Future of Education

This study investigated reading errors in children with ADHD as a function of subtypes and of phonological difficulties. For this purpose, 125 fifth-sixth grade children including 66 normal and 59 ADHD students were examined. Among ADHD students, 23 of inattentive type (ADHD-I), 18 of the hyperactive- impulsive type (ADHD-H) and 18 of the combined type (ADHD-C).  All participants underwent a battery of tests including phonological tasks and reading. Error analysis was based on previous studies on Arabic (Abu Rabia & Taha, 2004; Taha et al., 2014) that defined four different types. The participants scores showed that ADHD differed from normal students in the attention test, RAN, digit span (backward), phonological processing and decoding (words/pseudowords). Reading analysis showed that ADHD made significantly more errors than normal students, but with no difference between ADHD subgroups. ADHD students with phonological difficulties exhibited significantly more semi-phonetic and dys-phonetic (not morphological) errors than ADHD students without phonological difficulties. Finally, ADHD students without phonological difficulties exhibited more error than normal students without phonological difficulties in particular with semi-phonetic errors. These findings indicate that reading difficulties reported by many ADHD students might be explained by the disorder itself and not necessarily due to a comorbidity dyslexia.

Keywords: Reading errors, Subtypes of ADHD, Phonological difficulties, Phonological tasks and Reading, dyslexia;

References:
[1] Abu Rabia & Taha, 2004; Taha et al., 2014
[2] Alderson, R. M., Kasper, L. J., Hudec, K. L., & Patros, C. H. (2013). Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and working memory in adults: A meta-analytic review.