We examined the predictive value of early spelling for later reading performance by analyzing data from 970 U.S. children whose spelling was assessed in the summer following the completion of ...kindergarten (M age = 6 years; 3 months). The word reading performance of most of the children was then tested after the completion of Grade 1 (age 7;5), Grade 2 (8;5), Grade 4 (10;5), and Grade 9 (15;5). A computer-scored measure of postkindergarten spelling was a significant predictor of later reading performance even after taking into account postkindergarten phonological awareness, reading, and letter-sound knowledge and prekindergarten vocabulary. The results suggest that, by the end of kindergarten, spelling is more than just a proxy for phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge. Given the information that spelling provides, it should be considered for inclusion when screening children for future literacy problems.
Disorders of reading, math, and attention frequently co-occur in children. However, it is not yet clear which cognitive factors contribute to comorbidities among multiple disorders and which uniquely ...relate to one, especially because they have rarely been studied as a triad. Thus, the present study considers how reading, math, and attention relate to phonological awareness, numerosity, working memory, and processing speed, all implicated as either unique or shared correlates of these disorders. In response to findings that the attributes of all three disorders exist on a continuum rather than representing qualitatively different groups, this study employed a dimensional approach. Furthermore, we used both timed and untimed academic variables in addition to attention and activity level variables. The results supported the role of working memory and phonological awareness in the overlap among reading, math, and attention, with a limited role of processing speed. Numerosity was related to the comorbidity between math and attention. The results from timed variables and activity level were similar to those from untimed and attention variables, although activity level was less strongly related to cognitive and academic/attention variables. These findings have implications for understanding cognitive deficits that contribute to comorbid reading disability, math disability, and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
To better understand the implications of comorbidity between reading disability (RD) and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample of 225 participants with RD but without ADHD, 139 ...participants with both RD and ADHD, and 1,502 children without reading or attentional difficulties was recruited through five large public school districts. In comparison to the group without RD or ADHD, both groups with RD exhibited elevations of comorbid internalizing and externalizing disorders and significant global, academic, and social impairment. However, the group with both RD and ADHD was most impaired on most measures, and analyses of neuropsychological measures indicate that the co‐occurrence of RD and ADHD may be due at least in part to weaknesses in cognitive processing speed and working memory that are most severe in the comorbid group. These results indicate that psychoeducational assessments of RD should always screen for ADHD and other emotional and behavioral difficulties, and that when RD and ADHD co‐occur interventions are likely to be needed for both disorders.
Lay
Reading disability (RD) is a common childhood disorder that is defined by significant and unexpected underachievement in reading. In addition to specific difficulties in reading, many individuals with RD also meet criteria for at least one other disorder, a phenomenon known as comorbidity. To better understand the implications of comorbidity between RD and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample of 225 participants with RD but without ADHD, 139 participants with both RD and ADHD, and 1,502 children without reading or attentional difficulties was recruited through five large public school districts. Results indicated that RD is associated with elevations of emotional and behavioral symptoms, significant academic and psychosocial difficulties. However, the group with both RD and ADHD was most impaired on most of these measures, and analyses of neuropsychological measures indicate that the co‐occurrence of RD and ADHD may be due at least in part to weaknesses in cognitive processing speed and executive functions that are most severe in the group with both disorders. These results indicate that psychoeducational assessments of RD should always screen for ADHD and other emotional and behavioral difficulties, and that when RD and ADHD co‐occur interventions are likely to be needed for both disorders.
As interest in sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) increases, a primary limitation for the field is the lack of a unified set of symptoms for assessing SCT. No existing SCT measure includes all items ...identified in a recent meta-analysis as optimal for distinguishing between SCT and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattention. This study evaluates a new self-report measure for assessing SCT in adulthood, the Adult Concentration Inventory (ACI), which was developed in response to the meta-analytic findings for assessing SCT. Using a large, multiuniversity sample (N = 3,172), we evaluated the convergent and discriminant validity and reliability of the ACI. We also evaluated the ACI measure of SCT in relation to self-reported demographic characteristics, daily life executive functioning, socioemotional adjustment (i.e., anxiety/depression, loneliness, emotion dysregulation, self-esteem), and functional impairment. Exploratory confirmatory factor analyses resulted in 10 ACI items demonstrating strong convergent and discriminant validity from both anxiety/depressive and ADHD inattentive symptom dimensions. SCT was moderately to-strongly correlated with daily life EF deficits, poorer socioemotional adjustment, and greater global functional impairment. Moreover, SCT remained uniquely associated in structural regression analyses with most of these external criterion domains above and beyond ADHD. Finally, when internalizing symptoms were also covaried, SCT, but not ADHD inattention, remained significantly associated with poorer socioemotional adjustment. These findings support the use of the ACI in future studies examining SCT in adulthood and make a major contribution in moving the field toward a unified set of SCT items that can be used across studies.
Public Significance Statement
This study provides initial validation of a new self-report measure for assessing sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms in adults, the Adult Concentration Inventory (ACI), and moves the field toward a unified set of SCT items that can be used in both research and clinical settings.
The objective was to determine the proportion of trait (consistency across occasions) and occasion-specific variance in sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ...(ADHD)-inattention (IN), ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptom ratings. A single trait factor-multiple state factors model was applied to parent ratings of SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD symptoms for 978 children (50% female) across prekindergarten (M = 4.90 years), kindergarten (M = 6.27 years), 1st-grade (M = 7.42 years), 2nd-grade (M = 8.45 years), and 4th-grade (M = 10.45 years) assessments. For the prekindergarten assessment, SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD contained more occasion-specific than trait variance (54%, 64%, 56%, and 55% occasion-specific variance, respectively). In contrast, SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD contained more trait than occasion-specific variance for the kindergarten through 4th-grade assessments (62%-72%, 65%-68%, 71%-75%, and 60%-69% trait variance, respectively). SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-HI, and ODD are slightly to moderately more state-like than trait-like during the prekindergarten developmental period but are more stable traits than fluctuating states from kindergarten to 4th grade. Findings indicate that, particularly after children start formal schooling, these psychopathology dimensions are primarily stable traits; implications for assessment are discussed.
Background Attentional control difficulties in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might reflect poor working memory (WM) ability, especially because WM ability and ...attentional control rely on similar brain regions. The current study examined whether WM ability might explain group differences in brain activation between adults with ADHD and normal control subjects during attentional demand. Methods Participants were 20 adults with ADHD combined subtype with no comorbid psychiatric or learning disorders and 23 control subjects similar in age, IQ, and gender. The WM measures were obtained from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III and Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised. Brain activation was assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a Color-Word Stroop task. Results Group differences in WM ability explained a portion of the activation in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which has been related to the creation and maintenance of an attentional set for task-relevant information. In addition, greater WM ability predicted increased activation of brain regions related to stimulus-driven attention and response selection processes in the ADHD group but not in the control group. Conclusions The inability to maintain an appropriate task set in young adults with combined type ADHD, associated with decreased activity in left DLPFC, might in part be due to poor WM ability. Furthermore, in individuals with ADHD, higher WM ability might relate to increased recruitment of stimulus-driven attention and response selection processes, perhaps as a compensatory strategy.
This study examined whether domain-general cognitive weaknesses in processing speed (PS) or executive functioning (EF) moderate the relation between word reading scores and anxiety such that lower ...word reading scores in combination with lower cognitive scores are associated with higher anxiety symptoms. The sample consisted of 755 youth ages 8–16 who were recruited as part of the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center twins study. Lower scores on PS (R2 = .007, p = .014), EF (R2 = .009, p = .006), and word reading (R2 = .006–.008, p = .010–.032) were associated with higher anxiety scores. In addition, the word reading × cognitive interactions were significant such that lower scores on PS (R2 = .010, p = .005) or EF (R2 = .013, p = .010) combined with lower word reading were associated with higher-than-expected anxiety symptoms. Results suggest that weaknesses in PS, EF, and word reading are modestly associated with higher anxiety symptoms, and these anxiety symptoms may be compounded in youth with both PS or EF weaknesses and word reading difficulties. These findings can guide assessment approaches for identifying youth with word reading challenges who may be at increased risk for anxiety.
Measures of component reading and language skills, executive functions, and processing speed were administered to groups of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 113), ...reading disability (RD; n = 109), both RD and ADHD (n = 64), and neither RD nor ADHD (n = 151). Groups with RD exhibited pronounced deficits on all measures of component reading and language skills, as well as significant weaknesses on measures of verbal working memory, processing speed, and response inhibition. Groups with ADHD exhibited weaknesses on all response-inhibition and processing speed tasks and were impaired on some measures of component reading skills and verbal working memory. The group with comorbid RD and ADHD exhibited the combination of the deficits in the RD-only and ADHD-only groups, providing evidence against the phenocopy and cognitive subtype hypotheses as explanations for the co-occurrence of RD and ADHD. Slow and variable processing speed was characteristic of all 3 clinical groups, suggesting that measures of this domain may be useful for future studies that search for the common genes that increase susceptibility to RD and ADHD.
It has become clear in recent years that reading, while relying on domain-specific language processing regions, also involves regions that implement executive processes more broadly. Such executive ...control is generally considered to be implemented by prefrontal regions, which exert control via connectivity that allows them to modulate processing in target brain regions. The present study examined whether three previously identified and distinct executive control regions in the pFC Wang, K., Banich, M. T., Reineberg, A. E., Leopold, D. R., Willcutt, E. G., Cutting, L. E., et al. Left posterior prefrontal regions support domain-general executive processes needed for both reading and math.
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, 467–495, 2020 show similar patterns of functional connectivity (FC) during a reading comprehension task as compared with a symbol identification condition. Our FC results in a sample of adolescents (
= 120) suggest all three regions commonly show associations with activity in “classic” left hemisphere reading areas, including the angular and supramarginal gyri, yet each exhibits differential connectivity as well. In particular, precentral regions show differential FC to parietal portions of the dorsal language stream, the inferior frontal junction shows differential FC to middle temporal regions of the right hemisphere and other regions involved in semantic processing, and portions of the inferior frontal gyrus show differential FC to an extensive set of right hemisphere prefrontal regions. These results suggest that prefrontal control over language-related regions occurs in a coordinated yet discrete manner.
Previous work suggests that symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are associated with procrastination in college students, but relatively little is known about markers that ...account for this relation. In the present study, we examined the relation between ADHD symptoms and procrastination and whether indirect effects through emotion regulation and self-esteem independently and/or serially account for this relation. Five hundred ninety-five college students (79.5% female; 84.7% white; 94.3% between 18 and 22 years of age) completed a variety of online self-report measures assessing ADHD symptoms, emotion dysregulation, self-esteem, and procrastination. Difficulties in emotion regulation and self-esteem partially accounted for the relation between ADHD symptoms and procrastination individually in simple mediation models as well as together in a serial mediation model. These results are consistent with previous literature linking ADHD symptoms to greater difficulties in emotion regulation, lower self-esteem, and more frequent procrastination. This work suggests that improving emotion regulation skills and self-esteem in college students with symptoms of ADHD should be an important goal of treatment, but future work using longitudinal data is needed to gain a better understanding of the temporal relations among these variables.
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