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Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the presence of specific cognitive impairments and the diagnostic utility of the WISC-III in children with ADHD. Ninety-eight children with ADHD and 81 children without ADHD matched by age and gender (control group), between the ages of 6 and 12 years, participated in the study. Children with ADHD revealed the most pronounced deficits in the subtests tapping working memory and processing speed. Freedom from Distractibility was the cognitive profile most impaired and that showed the highest diagnostic accuracy to discriminate children with ADHD. The optimal cutoff scores of the most common WISC-III cognitive profiles revealed greater diagnostic accuracy than the traditional approach of full or partial profiles. Taken together, these results suggested that in the context of a comprehensive psychological assessment, the WISC may provide knowledge about the specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses that characterize this disorder and may be useful in the decision-making process relative to ADHD diagnosis.
Notes
1 Throughout the article the term “Freedom from Distractibility” will be used to refer to the composite measure of the sum of the age-adjusted-scaled scores of Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests (ranging from 2 to 38 points). In the case of the full and partial cognitive profile analysis, the “Freedom from Distractibility” will be also used to refer to a specific pattern of low age-adjusted-scaled scores on the Arithmetic and Digit Span subtests that were less than or equal to the scores on the remaining WISC-III subtests. The term “Freedom from Distractibility Index” will be used to refer to the WISC-III index score (M = 100 and SD = 15).