Writing abilities longitudinally predict academic outcomes of adolescents with ADHD.

Abstract

Students with ADHD often experience a host of negative academic outcomes and deficits in reading and mathematics abilities contribute to these academic impairments. Students with ADHD may also have difficulties with written expression but there has been minimal research in this area and it is not clear whether written expression abilities uniquely contribute to the academic functioning of students with ADHD. The current study included a sample of 104 middle school students diagnosed with ADHD (grades 6–8). Participants were followed longitudinally to evaluate whether written expression abilities at baseline predicted student GPA and parent ratings of academic impairment 18 months later, after controlling for reading ability and additional relevant covariates. Written expression abilities longitudinally predicted both academic outcomes above and beyond ADHD and ODD symptoms, medication use, reading ability, and baseline values of GPA and parent-rated academic impairment. Follow-up analyses revealed that no single aspect of written expression was demonstrably more impactful on academic outcomes than the others, suggesting that writing as an entire process should be the focus of intervention.

Handwriting assessment to distinguish comorbid learning difficulties from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Chinese adolescents: A case–control study

“…Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning difficulties (LDs) are proposed as “overlapping spectrum disorders” (Mayes, Calhoun, & Crowell, ). Molitor et al () estimated that 70% of students with ADHD have a specific learning difficulty. The average rate of comorbidity of ADHD‐LD among adolescents across studies was also found to be as high as 45% (DuPaul, Gormley, & Laracy, ).…”

Metacognitive interventions in text production and working memory in students with ADHD

“…The literature, albeit scarce, provides evidence of poor writing performance among ADHD students in childhood (Re, Pedron, & Cornoldi, 2007;Miranda, Soriano, & Baixauli, 2011), adolescence (Molitor et al, 2016a;DeBono et al, 2012), and young adults (Kim, Lee, & Lee, 2013;Miranda, Baixauli, & Colomer, 2013;Semrud-Clikeman, 2012). The writing of children and young people with ADHD is shorter, contains more errors, and is of poorer quality in terms of adequacy, structure, grammar, and lexicon, compared to that of their typically developing peers, and these difficulties affect different age groups (Re et al, 2007).…”

“…The SRSD model addresses the WM deficits that are commonly found in students with ADHD (Jacobson & Reid, 2010;Molitor et al, 2016a;Miranda et al, 2013). In that model, the explicit teaching of strategies is designed to contribute to (a) reducing the demands on WM during the writing of a text, when used in an automated manner; ( b) developing a repertoire of flexible strategies to deal with academic tasks, which are scarce in children with ADHD; (c) improving focus and effort with the use of self-regulation strategies; and (d) setting goals, keeping goals in mind, and directing the behavior toward achieving them (Harris et al, 2015).…”

High Prevalence of Dysgraphia in Elementary Through High School Students With ADHD and Autism

“…In a study by Weintraub and Graham (1998), students with a learning disability took an average of 50 min to complete a writing task that regular education students completed in 30 min. Students with writing problems cannot keep up with note taking (Graham, 1999), and writing problems negatively affect academic achievement (Mayes & Calhoun, 2007b; Molitor et al, 2016). Dysgraphia causes significant homework stress for parents and has considerable potential psychosocial repercussions for the student, including low self-esteem, anxiety, sadness, and dislike of school.…”

“…Specifically, graphomotor ability was found to contribute uniquely to concurrent reading, math, and written expression achievement test scores in a study of 886 students (6-16 years of age) with ADHD or autism (Mayes & Calhoun, 2007b). Relatedly, difficulty with written expression (spelling and compositional writing skills scored for length of text, theme development, organization, grammar, and mechanics) was a significant predictor of academic achievement 18 months later in 104 middle school students with ADHD, controlling for baseline grade point average, reading ability, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms, and medication use (Molitor et al, 2016).…”