[Phonological awareness in child with attention deficit disorder without learning disabilities]. / Conciencia fonoloóica en niños con trastorno de la atención sin dificultades en el aprendizaje.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Phonological awareness problems have been reported in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, other researches found that phonological awareness problem appear only in children with learning disabilities (LD). OBJECTIVE: To analyze the performance on phonological awareness tasks of children aged 7 to11 years with ADHD combined type (ADHD/+H), and inattentive type (ADHD/-H) compared with one control group. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A non-randomized sample consisting of 96 children of both genders was selected. Children were attending to school in Medellin, Colombia. The sample was classified into three groups of 32 participants: ADHD/+H, ADHD/-H and control. LD was excluded using a standardized questionnaire for teachers (CEPA). Groups were sorted using a T score (3) 60 for cases and T score pound 50 for controls on a standardized questionnaire with DSM-IV-ADHD criteria, and on an ADHD-DSM-IV checklist. The performances of the three groups on phonological awareness tasks, as auditory discrimination, visual recognition, sequential repetition, oral segmentation, syllable inversion, similar words reading and writing, and pseudo-words reading and writing, were compared. RESULTS: Differences between ADHD and control children on phonological awareness tasks scores were not found. CONCLUSION: Children with ADHD without LD performed similarly to controls on phonological awareness tasks.