A Comparison of Writing Ability between Children with and without ADHD According to Length of Story

Abstract

For school-aged children, writing is an important means of communication and scholastic achievement; nevertheless, children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have difficulty writing. Thus, this research studied how the length of story, which is one factor influencing writing, affected writing of children with ADHD. Methods: Sixteen children with ADHD and 16 normally-developing children in 3rd to 4th grade elementary school participated in the study. After listening to short and long stories they were asked to rewrite those stories and their writings were analyzed. Results: Children with ADHD wrote less in terms of quantity than the normally-developing children in the long story condition, but not in the short story condition. When analyzing the writing composition of both groups, the children with ADHD performed worse regardless of the length of the story. Syntactic complexity created no significant difference between the two groups, but both groups produced more complex syntax after the long story condition. In addition, both groups produced more sentences with syntactic errors after the long story condition and the children with ADHD made more sentences with syntactic errors in both conditions. Lastly, the children with ADHD produced more spelling errors in both conditions. Conclusion: When children with ADHD write a long story, they write less in terms of quantity than normally-developing children, which could explain why they write poorly. However, even when they can write equal quantity with normally-developing children, children with ADHD demonstrate poorer writing composition and produce more errors. These results are discussed in relationship to the characteristics of cognitive process.