An Investigation of Cognitive Profiles of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Through Anadolu-Sak Intelligence Scale

Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders in childhood. Intelligence scales are widely used as a supplement to other instruments in the diagnosis of ADHD because ADHD can inhibit some cognitive processes related to intelligence. The purpose of this study was to investigate cognitive profiles of children with ADHD on Anadolu Sak Intelligence Scale (ASIS). The participants were 102 children with ADHD. Between-groups analyses showed that children with ADHD had significantly lower scores than the normative sample in all indexes and subscales of the ASIS. Within group analysis showed that the mean score of the ADHD group on the Memory Capacity Index was significantly lower than their scores on the Verbal Potential Index and Visual Potential Index. The subscale analyses showed that ADHD group performed significantly lower in the Visual Sequential Processing subtest and Words Meanings subtest than the other subtests. The children with ADHD were observed to have weak working memory performance which may impact their learning capacity, especially during language acquisition.