Abstract
Attention problems are ubiquitous in clinical practice, commonly found in many childhood learning and behavior disorders. Practitioners need cost- and time-effective methods for determining whether children have attention problems due to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or numerous other conditions. This study examined the utility of a 15-minute ADHD screening battery designed to differentiate ADHD (including inattentive, IT, and combined, CT, subtypes), specific learning disability (SLD), and typical child samples. Results for the 368 children (age 6 to 12 years) revealed that the Trail Making Test–Part B (Time/Errors), Hale–Denckla Cancellation Test (Time/Correct), and Child Attention Profile (Inattention/Overactivity) teacher ratings discriminated between typical and ADHD groups (87% correct classification; sensitivity = .64; specificity = .92) and differentiated between IT, CT, and SLD groups (80% correct classification; IT sensitivity = .82, and specificity = .96; CT sensitivity = .84, and specificity = .82). Discriminant function and Bonferroni post hoc results revealed different neuropsychological and behavioral patterns among groups.
Notes
1Based on CitationCohen's (1988) classification, ds of 0.20 to 0.49 are considered small, ds of 0.50 to 0.79 are moderate, and ds of above 0.80 are considered large.