Evidence of difficulties in sustained attention in children with ADDH

It has been suggested that children with ADDH have specific difficulties in sustained attention. Despite some early studies supporting this position, many recent reports using continuous performance tests (CPTs) have failed to confirm this hypothesis. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are outlin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of abnormal child psychology 1990-04, Vol.18 (2), p.217-229
Main Authors: SEIDEL, W. T, JOSCHKO, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnosis
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology
Attention Deficit Disorders
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child clinical studies
Children & youth
Emotions
Female
Humans
Hyperactivity
Male
Medical sciences
Performance Tests
Psychological Tests
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics
Psychomotor Performance
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Reproducibility of Results
Social research
Time Factors
Time on Task
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Summary:It has been suggested that children with ADDH have specific difficulties in sustained attention. Despite some early studies supporting this position, many recent reports using continuous performance tests (CPTs) have failed to confirm this hypothesis. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are outlined and an attempt to corroborate and extend an earlier study (Sykes, Douglas, & Morgenstern, 1973) was undertaken. CPT results in normal children indicated that changes in performance over time, although not affected by gender, were influenced by age. Data from ADDH subjects indicated that they performed significantly more poorly with time on task than did controls. These results suggest that the ability to sustain attention increases with age and does not vary by gender. Furthermore, difficultues in the ability to sustain attention can be demonstrated in children with ADDH. Finally, it is suggested that within-age-level comparisons between groups of ADDH and controls would be more clinically sensitive than across-age-group comparisons.
ISSN:0091-0627
2730-7166
1573-2835
2730-7174
DOI:10.1007/BF00910732