Narrative organization skills in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and language impairment: Application of the causal network model

Abstract

Studies suggest that the oral narratives of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are less organized than those of typically developing peers. Many studies, however, do not account for children's language abilities. Because language impairment (LI) is a frequent comorbid condition in children with ADHD, this exploratory study investigated language abilities and narrative organization skills in children with and without ADHD. Narratives were elicited using the picture‐sequence task and the single‐picture task from the Test of Narrative Language (Gillam & Pearson, ). The causal network model (Trabasso, Van den Broek, & Suh, ) was applied to analyse the narratives. Specifically, narratives were examined to identify complete and incomplete superordinate and subordinate Goal‐Attempt‐Outcome (GAO) units. The results revealed no differences among the groups in the picture‐sequence task. Children with ADHD+LI produced significantly fewer complete superordinate GAO units than typical children in the single‐picture task. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

• Narrative
• causal network model
• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• language impairment

Notes

1. Although the upper boundary of the age range for the TNL was below some of the participants' chronological age, the narrative elicitation procedures used in this test are appropriate for older children (Hughes et al., 1997). Moreover, the standardized scores obtained using this test were not used in the study.