Reading difficulties and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity behaviours: evidence of an early association in a nonclinical sample
Abstract
Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co‐occurs with reading disability. A cross‐sectional study in an Italian‐speaking, nonclinical sample was conducted in an attempt to document the existence of an early association between reading difficulties (RD) and ADHD behaviours. We recruited a sample of 369 children in their first year at primary school. Of the sample, 8.4% displayed RD; 7.0% had ADHD; 3.5% presented both RD and ADHD behaviours; 50% of the children with ADHD displayed RD; 41.9% of those with RD displayed ADHD behaviours. Low socioeconomic status was associated with a fourfold increased probability of displaying RD (odds ratio = 3.98), but not ADHD behaviours. In this nonclinical sample, we detected an early association between ADHD behaviours and RD. A key role in this association may be played by inattention symptoms, which occurred with significantly increased frequency also in the group presenting only RD.
Number of times cited: 2
- Elena Commodari, Novice Readers: The Role of Focused, Selective, Distributed and Alternating Attention at the First Year of the Academic Curriculum, i-Perception, 8, 4, (204166951771855), (2017).
- Laura Reale, Beatrice Bartoli, Massimo Cartabia, Michele Zanetti, Maria Antonella Costantino, Maria Paola Canevini, Cristiano Termine and Maurizio Bonati, Comorbidity prevalence and treatment outcome in children and adolescents with ADHD, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 12, (1443), (2017).
