Supervisors info:
Φαίη Αντωνίου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, ΦΠΨ, Ε.Κ.Π.Α
Γαλάνης Πέτρος, Μέλος του Εργαστηριακού Διδακτικού Προσωπικού, ΦΠΨ, Ε.Κ.Π.Α
Ασβεστάς Αναστάσιος, Συντονιστής Εκπαιδευτικού Έργου, 3ο ΠΕ.Κ.Ε.Σ. Αττικής, Ε.Κ.Π.Α
Summary:
The purpose of this research was to examine the achievement of students diagnosed with ADHD symptoms in academic skills of written expression, spelling and their subcategories, by studying whether there is a difference in the achievement of the typically developing peers as to the aforementioned skills. In addition, the research aimed to prove that the possible low academic achievement is related to the ADHD symptoms as previous research has claimed. Moreover, it was investigated whether there is comorbidity of ADHD and learning disabilities and whether there are differences among ADHD subtypes in academic achievement of skills of reading decoding, written expression and spelling.
For this purpose, 28 students participated in the research project attending the 5th and 6th grade of primary schools in Attica. These students were assigned into two groups; 14 ADHD students and 14 typically developing peers according to certain criteria (same age, gender and common spoken language). Academic achievement in written expression and its subcategories as well as in spelling, including spelling error types, were studied between two groups. Furthermore, the group of ADHD students was divided into two ADHD subtypes (8 with inattentive type and 6 with combined type).
The general human intelligence was assessed using Ravens Progressive Matrices (Sideridis, Antoniou, Simos & Mouzaki, 2015) and ADHD symptoms were measured with ADHD Greek rating scale-IV questionnaire (Kalantzi-Azizi, Ageli, & Efstathiou, 2005). Τhe academic skills were assessed by applying the Reading test – A (Pantelidou & Antoniou, 2007) to measure reading decoding, a spelling test (Sideridis, 1998) to measure spelling skills and a written expression test to measure writing skills.
The results showed significant statistical difference between matched groups in total performance of written expression and in the aspects of quality and productivity of the text. Nevertheless, in the aspects of narrative genre structure, organization, structure and coherence of the text as well as the vocabulary, no significant statistical differences were found. Additionally, there was significant statistical difference among ADHD students and typically developing peers with respect to spelling skills and etymological and grammatical errors, but not with respect to the phonological ones. As regards the ADHD subtypes of both inattentive and combined type, no significant statistical differences of skills were revealed in reading decoding, written expression and spelling. Finally, it was demonstrated that there is a possible comorbidity of ADHD and learning disabilities.
The impact of the symptom of inattention in academic achievement is the prevailing reason why significant statistical differences between matched groups were observed; this entails low academic performance to ADHD children in the skills of written expression and spelling. Τhe fact that no differences were found between ADHD subtypes regarding academic skills, could also be attributed to the symptom of inattention. The difficulties in academic achievement are owed to its impact, even in the combined ADHD type. Therefore, the symptom of inattention impedes academic progress and the acquisition of academic skills on account of manifesting maladaptive behavior, such as attention difficulties in the academic material.
Keywords:
ADHD, subtypes of ADHD, academic achievement, academic skills, written expression, spelling, reading decoding, learning disabilities
