Neuropsychological test performance of preschool children at risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Behaviors of preschool children similar to those seen in older children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) are often dismissed as age-appropriate, and expected to disappear with time. A hesitancy to diagnose young children and troublesome behaviors exhibited by even those developing normally, make it difficult to delineate developmentally appropriate from disruptive behavior that signals a future diagnosis of AD/HD. Those preschoolers who will later be diagnosed with AD/HD often experience negative feedback and difficulty in acquiring pre-academic skills in the interim between first appearance of behaviors linked to AD/HD and eventual diagnosis.; While results are mixed, older children have revealed a number of deficits on neuropsychological tests. A community sample of thirty (30) children between the ages of 3:0 and 4:11 were divided into two groups based on their behavior scale rating. Fifteen (15) children scoring at or below One Standard Deviation from the mean, scored significantly below the mean on a measure of digit recall. When compared to those scoring within the normal range on the behavior rating scale, these children were significantly lower on sentence repetition, verbal comprehension, pattern construction, copying, and attention/executive control subtests. In addition, several subtest scores were significantly correlated, including attention/executive function with digit recall. Specific deficits were related to those reported for older children. Further study is needed utilizing larger sample size, additional neuropsychological measures, a wider range of behavioral ratings, and an extended age range.