O'Neill Sarah, Thornton Veronica, Marks David J, Rajendran Khushmand, Halperin Jeffrey M
Department of Psychology, The City College.
School of Psychology and Counseling, Regent University.
Neuropsychology. 2016 May;30(4):398-404. doi: 10.1037/neu0000247. Epub 2015 Nov 16.
Early inattention is associated with later reading problems in children, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear. We investigated whether the negative relation between preschoolers' ADHD symptoms and 8-year-old reading achievement is directly related to the severity of inattention or is mediated by early language skills.
Children (n = 150; 76% boys) were evaluated at 3 time points: preschool (T1), mean (SD) age = 4.24 (.49) years; 1 year later (T2), mean (SD) age = 5.28 (.50) years; and during school age (T3), mean (SD) age = 8.61 (.31) years. At T1, parents' Kiddie-SADS responses were dimensionalized to reflect ADHD severity. Children completed the Language domain of the NEPSY (i.e., A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment) at T1 and again at T2. At T3, children completed the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition Word Reading, Pseudoword Decoding, Reading Comprehension, and Spelling subtests, and their teachers completed ratings of Reading and Written Expression performance in school. The mediating effect of T2 Language on the relation between preschool Inattention and age 8 Reading was examined using the nonparametric bootstrapping procedure, while controlling for T1 Language.
Language ability at T2 mediated the path from preschool inattention (but not hyperactivity/impulsivity) to 8-year-old reading achievement (both test scores and ratings) after controlling for preschoolers' language ability.
Early attentional deficits may negatively impact school-age reading outcomes by compromising the development of language skills, which in turn imperils later reading achievement. Screening children with attentional problems for language impairment, as well as implementing early intervention for both attentional and language problems may be critical to promote reading achievement during school years. (PsycINFO Database Record
儿童早期注意力不集中与后期阅读问题相关，但这种关联发生的机制尚不清楚。我们研究了学龄前儿童的注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）症状与8岁阅读成绩之间的负相关关系是直接与注意力不集中的严重程度相关，还是由早期语言技能介导。
对150名儿童（76%为男孩）在3个时间点进行评估：学龄前（T1），平均（标准差）年龄=4.24（0.49）岁；1年后（T2），平均（标准差）年龄=5.28（0.50）岁；学龄期（T3），平均（标准差）年龄=8.61（0.31）岁。在T1时，将父母对儿童行为检查表（Kiddie-SADS）的回答进行量化以反映ADHD严重程度。儿童在T1和T2时完成了NEPSY（即发展神经心理学评估）的语言领域测试。在T3时，儿童完成了韦氏个别成就测验第二版的单词阅读、假词解码、阅读理解和拼写分测验，其教师完成了对其在学校阅读和书面表达表现的评分。在控制T1语言能力的同时，使用非参数自抽样程序检验T2语言能力对学龄前注意力不集中与8岁阅读成绩之间关系的中介作用。
在控制学龄前儿童语言能力后，T2时的语言能力介导了从学龄前注意力不集中（而非多动/冲动）到8岁阅读成绩（测试分数和教师评分）的路径。
早期注意力缺陷可能通过损害语言技能的发展对学龄期阅读结果产生负面影响，进而危及后期阅读成绩。筛查有注意力问题的儿童是否存在语言障碍，以及对注意力和语言问题实施早期干预，对于促进学龄期的阅读成绩可能至关重要。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
