Research on assessing the cognitive process in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder by using Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the cognitive process in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (DNCAS).Methods Sixty-one children with ADHD and sixty-one healthy controls were enrolled in this study.The cognition of all the studies individuals was evaluated by the DNCAS.Results Compared with the control group,children with ADHD had significantly lower scores in planning[(24.18 ±5.64) scores vs (30.07 ±5.28) scores,t =-6.985,P ＜ 0.01],simultaneous processing[(33.97 ± 7.64) scores vs (36.90 ± 7.20) scores,t =-2.211,P ＜ 0.05],attention [(26.52 ± 6.80) scores vs (31.21 ± 5.86) scores,t =-4.909,P ＜0.01] in the 4 subtests of DNCAS,and the total scores [(117.85 ±21.45) scores vs (132.48 ± 17.95) scores,t =-5.286,P ＜ 0.01] are same.And there were significant differences in matching numbers [(8.77 ± 2.33) scores vs (10.87 ± 2.31) scores,t =-5.220,P ＜ 0.01],planned codes [(7.87 ± 2.37) scores vs (9.44 ± 2.61) scores,t =-4.006,P ＜ 0.01],planned connections [(7.54 ± 2.29) scores vs (9.75 ± 2.01) scores,t =-6.643,P ＜0.01];verbal-spatial relations in simultaneous processing [(10.05 ±2.79) scores vs (11.23 ± 3.19) scores,t =-2.382,P ＜ 0.05] and expressive attention [(9.02 ± 2.47) scores vs (10.34 ± 3.03) scores,t =-2.938,P ＜0.01],number detection [(8.16 ±2.31) scores vs (10.08 ± 1.86) scores,t =-5.028,P ＜ 0.01],receptive attention [(9.34 ± 3.68) scores vs (10.78 ± 3.20) scores,t =-3.215,P ＜ 0.01] between ADHD group and the control group.There were significant differences of the percentile rank distribution of the scores between ADHD group and the control group in planning,attention and full score (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions Children with ADHD have cognitive deficits in the cognitive processing,and planning and attention deficits are the main features.The DNCAS could be a useful tool in evaluating cognition of children with ADHD.