Maria Rogers

Parental involvement in children's learning: comparing parents of children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The present study examined involvement in childrens learning among parents of 101 children between 8 and 12 years of age (53 parents of children with ADHD, 48 parents of children without ADHD). Compared to parents of children without ADHD, parents of children with ADHD reported lower self-efficacy in their ability to help their children, felt less welcome and supported by their childrens schools and teachers, and perceived less time and energy for involvement in their childrens academic lives. Mothers of children with and without ADHD reported similar types and levels of involvement behaviors in the home. Fathers of children with ADHD reported being more disengaged from their childrens learning and using more coercive and punitive interactions regarding their childrens achievement compared to fathers of children without ADHD. These findings underscore the difficulties in parent-supported learning practices and home-school collaboration initiatives faced by parents of children with ADHD and educators alike. Implications for school psychology practice are discussed.

Friendship Characteristics of Children With ADHD

Objective: This study explored the friendship characteristics of 8 to 12 year old children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Friendship characteristics included number of nominated and corroborated friends, duration of friendships, amount of contact with friends, and the proportion of friends with learning and behavioral problems. Method: The sample comprised 92 children, 50 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 42 comparison children. Result: While children with ADHD did not differ from comparison children in the number of friends they nominated, parents and teachers of children with ADHD were less likely to corroborate that these friendships existed. The friendships of children with ADHD were also shorter in duration. While children with ADHD were indistinguishable from comparison children with regards to the amount of telephone contact with friends, they spent less time with friends outside of school than comparison children. Children with ADHD had a higher proportion of friends with learning and behavior problems. Conclusion: While children with ADHD differ from comparison children in the above friendship characteristics, it is promising that they still fall within the average range for the number of corroborated friendships and they demonstrate adequate stability in their friendships.

Longitudinal relations among inattention, working memory, and academic achievement: testing mediation and the moderating role of gender

Introduction. Behavioral inattention, working memory (WM), and academic achievement share significant variance, but the direction of relationships across development is unknown. The aim of the present study was to determine whether WM mediates the pathway between inattentive behaviour and subsequent academic outcomes. Methods. 204 students from grades 1–4 (49.5% female) were recruited from elementary schools. Participants received assessments of WM and achievement at baseline and one year later. WM measures included a visual-spatial storage task and auditory-verbal storage and manipulation tasks. Teachers completed the SWAN behaviour rating scale both years. Mediation analysis with PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) was used to determine mediation pathways. Results. Teacher-rated inattention indirectly influenced math addition fluency, subtraction fluency and calculation scores through its effect on visual-spatial WM, only for boys. There was a direct relationship between inattention and math outcomes one year later for girls and boys. Children who displayed better attention had higher WM scores, and children with higher WM scores had stronger scores on math outcomes. Bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for the indirect effects were entirely below zero for boys, for the three math outcomes. WM did not mediate the direct relationship between inattention and reading scores. Discussion. Findings identify inattention and WM as longitudinal predictors for math addition and subtraction fluency and math calculation outcomes one year later, with visual-spatial WM as a significant mediator for boys. Results highlight the close relationship between inattention and WM and their importance in the development of math skills.

Age-related changes in visual and auditory sustained attention in preschool-aged children

Objective: The development of sustained attention in the preschool years is not yet fully understood. Delineating age-related changes of attentional proficiencies and deficiencies is important for understanding atypical developmental trajectories, specifically in neurodevelopmental disorders that are characterized by attentional difficulties. The objective of the current study was to develop preschool-appropriate measures for assessing sustained attention and to chart developmental changes in attention in early childhood. Method: Using adapted computerized paradigms, the present study investigated age-related changes in visual and auditory sustained attention in seventy typically developing children aged 3 to 6 years. Results: The results indicated that similar age-related gains in performance emerged across both visual and auditory attention tasks. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the adapted measures developed in this study are sensitive enough to capture developmental variations in attention performance.

Are Classrooms Meeting the Basic Psychological Needs of Children With ADHD Symptoms? A Self-Determination Theory Perspective.

An abundance of research has linked the symptoms of ADHD with academic problems, even at levels below the clinical threshold for a diagnosis (Breslau et al., 2009; Currie & Stabile, 2006). Not only are ADHD symptoms predictive of underachievement in children, these symptoms are associated with concurrent problems in the school environment, such as interpersonal problems and negative attitudes toward themselves and learning in general (DuPaul & Stoner, 2003). Studies of typically developing children have shown that positive perceptions of the classroom environment are important for children’s overall school adjustment (Niemiec & Ryan, 2009). Guided by a prominent theory in social psychology, Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000), this exploratory study examined differences between how children with and without symptoms of ADHD perceive their classroom environments.

Mismatched: ADHD Symptomatology and the Teacher-Student Relationship.

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and their teachers, and to examine whether this relationship was associated with children’s academic motivation. The sample comprised 35 children with clinically elevated levels of ADHD symptoms and 36 children with no ADHD symptoms between the ages of 6 and 10. Children with symptoms of ADHD and their teachers reported impairments in both the emotional and collaborative aspects of their relationships, particularly for girls in the ADHD group. For children in the ADHD group, a self-reported close bond in the teacher–student relationship was associated with increased academic motivation. These findings were significant after controlling for co-occurring behaviour problems and academic impairments. These findings suggest that the symptoms of ADHD may interfere with teacher–student relationship and may serve as a barrier in student’s academic achievement.

The Ecology of ADHD in the Schools

Overwhelming evidence suggests that a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood has profound and far-reaching effects on children’s functioning in the school environment. In this article, we draw on a wide range of research studies to summarize the state of our knowledge about the academic functioning of children with ADHD and discuss intervention approaches that align with these areas. We use ecological systems theory to outline the various factors that are related to school functioning for children with ADHD at the child, classroom, and family levels. We place a particular emphasis on the importance of high-quality relationships within the delivery of interventions and highlight the need for sustainable, collaborative, and contextual interventions if we are to meet the complex and heterogeneous needs of children with ADHD in the school setting.

Measuring Children's Perceptions of Parental Involvement in Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: Factor Structure and Reliability of the "Parental Support for Learning Scale".

Practitioners of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation rely on several sources of information to assist in planning and evaluation of consultation efforts. Parental involvement in the home is an important aspect in Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, yet there are few questionnaires available to practitioners to assess this important construct, particularly those that target children’s self-report. This study examined the factor structure and reliability of a new questionnaire to measure children’s perceptions of their parental involvement in learning. The Parental Support for Learning Scale: Child Form (PSLS) was administered to a sample of 231 children (aged 10–13 years). Exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure representing parental involvement behaviors and emotional tone: (a) Parental Management of the Learning Environment, (b) Parental Participation With Homework, (c) Controlling Parental Involvement, and (d) Supportive Parental Involvement. Analysis showed satisfactory reliability coefficients. The four factors are discussed in relation to the relevant literature and Conjoint Behavioral Consultation, and future directions for further validation of the PSLS are discussed.

The Effectiveness of Daily Behavior Report Cards for Children With ADHD: A Meta-Analysis

Objective: This meta-analysis examined group-design studies investigating the effectiveness of Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRC) as a school-based intervention to manage the classroom behavior of students with ADHD. Methods: A search of three article databases (PsycINFO, ERIC and Medline) identified seven group design evaluations of DBRC interventions. This meta-analysis included a total of 272 participants, with an average age of 7.9 years old. Three of the studies compared a control group to a treatment group with randomized group assignment, one study compared a control group to three treatment groups, two studies compared pre-and post-treatment scores in the same group, and one study compared pre-and post-treatment results of two intervention groups without random assignment. Dependent measures for these studies were teacher ratings (n = 5) and systematic direct observation of student academic and social behaviour (n = 2). Standardized mean differences (Hedge’s g) were calculated to obtain a pooled effect size using fixed effects. Results: DBRCs were associated with reductions teacher-rated ADHD symptoms, with a Hedge’s g of 0.36 (95% CI: 0.12-0.60, z=2.93, p ≤ .005) with low heterogeneity (Q-value: 2.40, I2 = 0.00). This result excluded two studies that used observational coding instead of standardized tests to evaluate the effects of the intervention. A moderator analysis indicated that the effect size for systematic direct observation was large (Hedge’s G = 1.05[95% CI: 0.66-1.44, z=5.25, p ≤ .00]), with very high heterogeneity (Q-value: 46.34, I2: 93.53). A second moderator analysis found differences in the effects of DBRCs for comorbid externalizing symptoms with an overall effect size of 0.34 (95%CI: -0.04-0.72, z=1.76 p =0.08) with high heterogeneity (Q-value: 3.98, I2: 74.85). Conclusions: DBRCs effectively reduce the frequency and severity of ADHD symptoms in classroom settings. Additionally, they have a significant effect on co-occuring externalizing behaviors. It appears that systematic direct observation may be a more sensitive measure of treatment effects compared to teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms.

Event Segmentation Deficits in ADHD

Event segmentation is the automatic cognitive process of chunking ongoing information into meaningful events. Event segmentation theory (EST) proposes that event segmentation is a grouping process fundamental to normal, everyday perceptual processing, taking a central role in attention and action control. The neurocognitive deficits observed among individuals with ADHD overlap those involved in event segmentation, but to date no research has examined event segmentation in the context of ADHD. Objective: The goal of this study was to document the event segmentation deficits of individuals with ADHD. Method: Seventy-five undergraduates with ADHD and seventy-nine without ADHD performed an event segmentation task. Results: Results revealed that undergraduates with ADHD identify significantly more large events. Conclusion: These findingssuggest explicit disturbances in the event model and updating system among those with ADHD. Future research directions include further elucidating these deficits with more varied stimuli and establishing associations with functional impairments.