The utility of using eclectic neuropsychological measures of attention to differentially diagnose attentional deficits among a group of ADHD children without learning disorders

The behavioral characteristics of ADHD were well summarized by Walen (1989) who indicated that ADHD dysfunction involves deficits within concentration, behavioral inhibition, and productively in the every day world. The Federal Office of Special Education recommends that the assessment of ADHD involve the use of multiple informants, multiple technologies; cover multiple domains; and allow for the identification of treatment needs. The literature concerning the neurological assessment of ADHD recommends the use of a multi-dimensional model of attention (Barkley, 1994b) commonly based upon Mirsky's (1987) four-component model of attention.; This study examined the utility of using a number of easily obtainable measures of neurocognitive functioning based on Mirsky's multi-dimensional model of attention in order to explore their utility within the differential diagnosis of the ADHD subtypes of ADHD-H (hyperactive) and ADHD-I (inattentive).; The participants within this study were 60 male already diagnosed ADHD students between the ages of 9 through 13 years. The participants were drawn from a larger pool of potential candidates and then selected for participation based upon their meeting a rigid set of selection criteria. The final study population contained an ADHD-H (n = 30) and ADHD-I group (n = 30). Both study groups were divided further into a concomitant variable based upon age. The selection criteria required that the participants' primary handicap be ADHD and that they have no other identifiable disability such as Serious Emotional Disability or Specific Learning Disability.; The Bonferroni technique was used to eliminate chance probability with multiple comparisons and as a result a stringent alpha level of .0045 was adopted to indicate significance. As a result, only the domain defined as Attentional Shift as measured through the use of the Computerized Category Test Total Error Score (p = <.001) (Rattan, 1988) proved to be significant. Although other measures were significant at the traditional alpha level of .05, overall results suggest caution when using neuropsychological measures of attention to differentiate ADHD subtypes.