The Learning Disability of Attention Deficit Disorder

Abstract

There has been much debate about whether attention det)cit disorder (ADD) requires special education intervention and whether ADD should be considered a learning disability. This paper examines the cognitive processing problems associated with ADD and their relationship to learning disabilities. ADD children, medicated and unmedicated, were compared to children with learning disabilities and children who were referred but not identified as learning disabled (No ID). Two discriminant function analyses (DFA's) were conducted to detennine the cognitive/educational profile which differentiated among the four groups in this study: ADD, no meds; LD; No 10; ADD, moos. With the fIrst DFA classification accuracy was 69.05% and a significance level of p=.OOO2 was obtained. The secondDFAreached a better solutionby treating theLD and ADD, no meds as one group. This three group solution achieved a classification accuracy of 78.57%,p=.OOOl. The ADD, no meds group was found to have weaknesses relative to ability in reading, decoding, calculations, and verbal working memory. Similarities and differences among ADD, no meds and the children with learning disabilities are discussed.