School Entry Plays an Insignificant Role in Attention Performance, Impulse Control, and Motor Activity of Same-Aged Children from Preschool and Elementary School.

The transition from preschool to elementary school places demands on children to pay attention, control their impulses, and avoid fidgeting. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies have investigated whether these characteristics are influenced by elementary school entry. The current study compares same-aged preschool and elementary-school children regarding their attention performance, impulse control, and motor activity. A total of 60 children (30 preschool and 30 elementary school; 6 years old) underwent the Quantified Behavior (Qb) Test. The children's parents responded to a conventional questionnaire for measuring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. We found that formal schooling (mean: 3 months) did not significantly affect the examined variables (p > .05). The results imply that improvements in questionnaire and computer test scores shown by previous studies are rather caused by maturation than the educational context. The assumption that inattention ratings increase after school entry because inattention can be better observed in an academic setting could not be verified either. Our study substantiates that the normative data used in clinical practice need not consider the educational context.

Enhancing the Follow-up Assessment of Very Preterm Children with Regard to 5-Year IQ Considering Socioeconomic Status.

BACKGROUND: Specifying peri- and postnatal factors in children born very preterm (VPT) that affect later outcome helps to improve long-term treatment. AIM: To enhance the predictability of 5-year cognitive outcome by perinatal, 2-year developmental and socio-economic data. SUBJECTS AND OUTCOME MEASURES: 92 VPT infants, born 2007-2009, gestational age<32 weeks and/or birthweight of 1500 g, were assessed longitudinally including basic neonatal, socio-economic (SES), 2-year Mental Developmental Index (MDI, Bayley Scales II), 5-year Mental Processing Composite (MPC, Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children), and Language Screening for Preschoolers data. 5-year infants born VPT were compared to 34 term controls. RESULTS: The IQ of 5-year infants born VPT was 10 points lower than that of term controls and influenced independently by preterm birth and SES. MDI, SES, birth weight and birth complications explained 48% of the variance of the MPC. The MDI proved highly predictive (r=0.6, R2=36%) for MPC but tended to underestimate the cognitive outcome. A total of 61% of the 2-year infants born VPT were already correctly classified (specificity of .93, sensitivity of .54). CHAID decision tree technique identified SES as decisive for the outcome for infants born VPT with medium MDI results (76-91): They benefit from effects associated to a higher SES, while those with a poor MDI outcome and a birth weight≤890 g do not. CONCLUSION: Developmental follow-up of preterm children enhances the quality of prognosis and later outcome when differentially considering perinatal risks and SES.

Is the QbMini a Valid Instrument for ADHD Assessment?

Objective: Few neuropsychological measurement tools of attention can assess preschoolers despite adequate instruments' potential to facilitate early diagnostic processes, which are currently demanding. This study's objective was to evaluate the QbMini, an attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) measurement tool for preschoolers. Method: QbMini performances of 37 5-year-old ADHD patients, 55 healthy controls, and 26 children with specific language impairment (SLI) were compared using univariate analyses of variance. The test's predictive power was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses and compared to a parental rating scale. Finally, the scales were compared by correlating their respective scores. Results: The QbMini measures ADHD symptoms and reliably differentiates between healthy children and patients, but not between children with ADHD and children with SLI. Conclusion: The QbMini can indicate presence and strength of ADHD symptoms, but fails to diagnose ADHD. It measures symptoms in a different way than parental ratings and might be stronger in distinguishing between hyperactivity and inattention.