Clinical utility of the Vanderbilt ADHD Rating Scale for ruling out comorbid learning disorders

The goal was to examine the clinical utility of using the Vanderbilt Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale (VARS) to determine when to refer children with ADHD for learning disorder (LD) evaluations.

A total of 128 stimulant-naive children with ADHD, 7 to 11 years of age, were included in the study. The parents and teachers of 128 children with diagnosed ADHD completed the VARS. The reading, numerical operations, and spelling subtests from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition, were used to identify children with a comorbid LD. We examined the predictive validity and clinical utility of the VARS performance items for ruling in/out the presence of a comorbid LD.

Thirty-eight percent of the samples met the criteria for a comorbid LD. A cutoff score of 7.5 for the sum of the VARS parent and teacher reading items had excellent clinical utility for ruling out both reading and spelling LDs. Cutoff scores of 4 for the VARS teacher reading and writing items had excellent utility for ruling out comorbid reading and spelling LDs, respectively. None of the VARS performance items effectively identified or ruled out math LDs.

The VARS performance items should be used with an interview about school functioning and a review of school records to rule out the presence of a comorbid reading or spelling LD for children with diagnosed ADHD.