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Speech discrimination and phonological working memory in children with ADHD

F Norrelgen1, F Lacerda, H Forssberg

  • 1Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. fritjof@child.ks.se

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
|June 23, 1999
PubMed

Insights

Children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and motor challenges struggle with speech discrimination tasks that involve working memory. This highlights a specific cognitive challenge in this ADHD subgroup.

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.

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