Document Type : Original Articles

Authors

Ph.D. student of Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Background: According to the research literature, there was a relationship between cognitive functions of attention and working memory and linguistic skills. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of cognitive rehabilitation on the improvement of the linguistic skills in 9-12 years old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.Methods: 40 students in grade 4, 5 and 6 of a primary school in Miyane city were assigned equally and randomly to two intervention and control groups. The research design was experimental with pre-test, post-test, follow-up, and control group. The language tests included; Thurston Verbal Fluency task, Token test of receptive language, Boston naming speed test, Assessment of Persian Reading Ability (APRA), verbal working memory subtest of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, and Attention Register task. Parental version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham (SNAP-IV) questionnaire was used to screen ADHD. The intervention method was based on Attentive Rehabilitation of Attention and Memory (ARAM) with emphasis on attention and working memory. Mixed ANOVA statistical test was used to analyze the data.Results: The results showed that the linguistic skills assessed in the research which include naming (F=29.42, P=0.01), verbal fluency (phonological fluency: F=15.68, P=0.01; semantic fluency: F=13.73, P=0.01), reading abilities (alphabet reading 1: F=17.84, P=0.01; alphabet reading 2: F=27.07, P=0.01; word reading: F=19.82, P=0.01; reading ability: F=19.97, P=0.01; voice change: F=13.47, P=0.01; reading comprehension: F=36.85, P=0.01), comprehension (F=6.75, P=0.01), verbal working memory (direct digits: F=7.7, P=0.01; inverse digits: F=14.26, P=0.01) and attention (attention registration 1: F=10.23, P=0.01; attention registration 2: F=4.33, P=0.04) were improved, following the intervention.Conclusion: Computerized Training of working memory and attention can enhance the language skills in children with ADHD. This result confirmed the role of attention and working memory on language skills.

Keywords

  1. Polanczyk G, De Lima MS, Horta BL, Biederman J, Rohde LA. The worldwide prevalence of ADHD: a systematic review and metaregression analysis. American journal of psychiatry. 2007.
  2. Ryan M, Jacobson LA, Hague C, Bellows A, Denckla MB, Mahone EM. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) in children with ADHD: An ex-Gaussian analysis. Child Neuropsychology. 2017;23(5):571-87.
  3. Wang E, Sun M, Tao Y, Gao X, Guo J, Zhao C, et al. Attentional selection predicts rapid automatized naming ability in Chinese-speaking children with ADHD. Scientific reports. 2017;7(1):939.
  4. Takacs Á, Kobor A, Tarnok Z, Csepe V. Verbal fluency in children with ADHD: strategy using and temporal properties. Child Neuropsychology. 2014;20(4):415-29.
  5. Colbert AM, Bo J. Evaluating relationships among clinical working memory assessment and inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors in a community sample of children. Research in developmental disabilities. 2017;66:34-43.
  6. Barini NS, Hage SRDV, editors. Vocabulary and verbal comprehension of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. CoDAS; 2015: SciELO Brasil.
  7. Ehm J-H, Kerner auch Koerner J, Gawrilow C, Hasselhorn M, Schmiedek F. The association of ADHD symptoms and reading acquisition during elementary school years. Developmental psychology. 2016;52(9):1445.
  8. Miller AC, Keenan JM, Betjemann RS, Willcutt EG, Pennington BF, Olson RK. Reading comprehension in children with ADHD: cognitive underpinnings of the centrality deficit. Journal of abnormal child psychology. 2013;41(3):473-83.
  9. Alderson RM, Kasper LJ, Patros CH, Hudec KL, Tarle SJ, Lea SE. Working memory deficits in boys with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): An examination of orthographic coding and episodic buffer processes. Child Neuropsychology. 2015;21(4):509-30.
  10. Baddeley A. Working memory in second language learning. Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. 2015:17-28.
  11. Chung C, Pollock A, Campbell T, Durward B, Hagen S. Cognitive rehabilitation for executive dysfunction in adults with stroke or other adult nonprogressive acquired brain damage. Stroke. 2013;44(7):e77-e8.
  12. Ingvalson EM, Young NM, Wong PC. Auditory–cognitive training improves language performance in prelingually deafened cochlear implant recipients. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology. 2014;78(10):1624-31.
  13. Duncan J, Seitz RJ, Kolodny J, Bor D, Herzog H, Ahmed A, et al. A neural basis for general intelligence. Science. 2000;289(5478):457-60.
  14. Kesler SR, Lacayo NJ, Jo B. A pilot study of an online cognitive rehabilitation program for executive function skills in children with cancer-related brain injury. Brain Injury. 2011;25(1):101-12.
  15. Kim S, Nordling JK, Yoon JE, Boldt LJ, Kochanska G. Effortful control in “hot” and “cool” tasks differentially predicts children’s behavior problems and academic performance. Journal of abnormal child psychology. 2013;41(1):43-56.
  16. Tajik-Parvinchi D, Wright L, Schachar R. Cognitive rehabilitation for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): promises and problems. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2014;23(3):207.
  17. Łojek E, Bolewska A. The effectiveness of computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation in brain-damaged patients. Polish Psychological Bulletin. 2013;44(1):31-9.
  18. Oskoei AS, Nejati V, Ajilchi B. The effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on improving the selective attention in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science. 2013;3(06):474.
  19. Khezrlou S. Cognitive Strategy Training: Improving Reading Comprehension in the Language Classroom. Journal of Teaching Language Skills. 2011;30(4):77-98.
  20. Tomas P, Fuentes I, Roder V, Ruiz JC. Cognitive rehabilitation programs in schizophrenia: current status and perspectives. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy. 2010;10(2).
  21. Sohlberg MM, Mateer CA. Cognitive rehabilitation: An integrative neuropsychological approach: Guilford Publications; 2017.
  22. Brickman AM, Paul RH, Cohen RA, Williams LM, MacGregor KL, Jefferson AL, et al. Category and letter verbal fluency across the adult lifespan: relationship to EEG theta power. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 2005;20(5):561-73.
  23. Bahrami H, Nejati V, Pooretemad H. A Comparative Study of Phonemic and Semantic Verbal Fluency in Children and Adolescents with Developmental Stuttering. Zahedan Journal of Research in Medical Sciences. 2014;16(5):41-4.
  24. Spreen O, Strauss E. A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms, and commentary: Oxford University Press; 1998.
  25. Gallaher AJ. Temporal reliability of aphasic performance on the Token Test. Brain and language. 1979;7(1):34-41.
  26. Richardson JT. Measures of short-term memory: a historical review. Cortex. 2007;43(5):635-50.
  27. Gathercole SE, Pickering SJ, Ambridge B, Wearing H. The structure of working memory from 4 to 15 years of age. Developmental psychology. 2004;40(2):177.
  28. Torgesen JK, Wagner RK, Rashotte CA, Burgess S, Hecht S. Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to the growth of word-reading skills in second-to fifth-grade children. Scientific studies of reading. 1997;1(2):161-85.
  29. Pedraza O, Sachs BC, Ferman TJ, Rush BK, Lucas JA. Difficulty and discrimination parameters of Boston Naming Test items in a consecutive clinical series. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. 2011;26(5):434-44.
  30. Pouretemad H, Jahani M. prevalence of reading disorders in elementary students of Qom (in Persian). 2001. Psychology Group of Qom Payamenoor University.
  31. Nejati V. The Designing and Normalization of Attention Registration Test in Children. ÁùwÑ≈ ù◊‡÷ Åw Í îÉ. 2015;13(4):519-24.
  32. Sadrosadat SJ, Houshyari Z, Zamani R, Sadrosadat L. Determinatio of psychometrics index of SNAP-IV rating scale in parents execution. Archives of Rehabilitation. 2008;8(4):59-65.
  33. Nejati V, Shahidi S, Helmi S. Enhancement of Executive Functions with Cognitive Rehabilitation in Older Adults. Journal of Modern Rehabilitation. 2017;10(3):120-7.
  34. Daneman M. Working memory as a predictor of verbal fluency. Journal of Psycholinguistic research. 1991;20(6):445-64.
  35. Shao Z, Janse E, Visser K, Meyer AS. What do verbal fluency tasks measure? Predictors of verbal fluency performance in older adults. Frontiers in psychology. 2014;5:772.
  36. Heinzel S, Schulte S, Onken J, Duong Q-L, Riemer TG, Heinz A, et al. Working memory training improvements and gains in non-trained cognitive tasks in young and older adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. 2014;21(2):146-73.
  37. MAHONE EM, KOTH CW, CUTTING L, SINGER HS, DENCKLA MB. Executive function in fluency and recall measures among children with Tourette syndrome or ADHD. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 2001;7(1):102-11.
  38. Baldo JV, Shimamura AP. Letter and category fluency in patients with frontal lobe lesions. Neuropsychology. 1998;12(2):259.
  39. Schwartz S, Baldo J. Distinct patterns of word retrieval in right and left frontal lobe patients: a multidimensional perspective. Neuropsychologia. 2001;39(11):1209-17.
  40. McVay JC, Kane MJ. Why does working memory capacity predict variation in reading comprehension? On the influence of mind wandering and executive attention. Journal of experimental psychology: general. 2012;141(2):302.
  41. Lee Swanson H, Howard CB, Saez L. Do different components of working memory underlie different subgroups of reading disabilities? Journal of learning disabilities. 2006;39(3):252-69.
  42. Van Dyke JA, Johns CL, Kukona A. Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension. Cognition. 2014;131(3):373-403.
  43. Daneman M, Merikle PM. Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic bulletin & review. 1996;3(4):422-33.
  44. Moll K, Göbel SM, Gooch D, Landerl K, Snowling MJ. Cognitive risk factors for specific learning disorder: processing speed, temporal processing, and working memory. Journal of learning disabilities. 2016;49(3):272-81.
  45. Dahlin KI. Effects of working memory training on reading in children with special needs. Reading and Writing. 2011;24(4):479-91.
  46. Decker SL, Roberts AM, Englund JA. Cognitive predictors of rapid picture naming. Learning and Individual Differences. 2013;25:141-9.
  47. Liu C, Georgiou GK. Cognitive and environmental correlates of rapid automatized naming in Chinese kindergarten children. Journal of Educational Psychology. 2017;109(4):465.
  48. Savage R, Pillay V, Melidona S. Deconstructing rapid automatized naming: Component processes and the prediction of reading difficulties. Learning and Individual Differences. 2007;17(2):129-46.
  49. Stringer RW, Toplak ME, Stanovich KE. Differential relationships between RAN performance, behaviour ratings, and executive function measures: Searching for a double dissociation. Reading and Writing. 2004;17(9):891-914.