Speech discrimination and phonological working memory in children with ADHD

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Speech and Hearing Sciences

Background:

• Attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting executive functions.
• Motor coordination deficits are frequently comorbid with ADHD, impacting cognitive performance.
• Phonological working memory plays a crucial role in speech processing and comprehension.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate phonological working memory and speech discrimination abilities in children with ADHD.
• To compare children with ADHD, children with ADHD and motor problems (ADHD+), and typically developing controls.
• To determine the impact of working memory load on speech discrimination in these groups.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted to assess speech discrimination.
• Experiment 1: Monosyllabic stimuli with contrasting consonants (low working memory load).
• Experiment 2: Two- to five-syllabic non-word stimuli with contrasting vowels (high working memory load).
• Participants classified stimulus pairs as same or different.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in speech discrimination were found for monosyllabic stimuli (low working memory load).
• The ADHD+ group performed significantly worse than ADHD and control groups on polysyllabic stimuli (high working memory load).
• This poorer performance in the ADHD+ group was linked to increased sensitivity to working memory demands.

Conclusions:

• Children with ADHD and comorbid motor difficulties exhibit specific deficits in speech discrimination under higher working memory loads.
• Working memory load significantly impacts speech processing in children with ADHD and motor impairments.
• These findings suggest targeted interventions addressing working memory and speech processing may benefit this subgroup of children with ADHD.