The Relationship Between Speech and Language Disorders and Working Memory: Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Typical Development.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the speech, language, and communication skills of school-age children with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder.

METHOD: The sample of the study consists of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (n = 47) participants who are combined type and attention-deficit-dominant type, and the control group (n = 40) typically developing participants. Turkish School Age Language Development Test, Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test, Working Memory Scale, and Predictive Cluttering Inventory were applied to all participants.

RESULTS: SPSS program was used in the analysis of the data. Mann Whitney U and One Way ANOVA analyzes were performed to find the difference between the groups. As a result of the statistical analysis, a significant difference was found between the participants with typical development and those with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in terms of word count (p < .001). It was determined that participants with typical development outperformed participants with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in all tests. There was no difference in the two subtypes of the attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder group (p > .001).

CONCLUSION: It has been concluded that language, speech, and working memory skills of children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder are lower than their peers with typical development. Speech and language skills and working memory must be taken into consideration in assessment and intervention children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.