Research has indicated a substantial overlap between reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, few studies concerning this overlap have been conducted with preschool children. This study examined the overlap between behaviors associated with ADHD and emergent literacy skills in preschool children. One group of 44 children (mean age = 48 months, SD = 11.3) was from middle-income families, and one group of 41 children (mean age = 53 months, SD = 8.1) attended Head Start. Results demonstrated that attention problems were substantially, consistently, and uniquely associated with emergent literacy skills in both groups; however, the effect was strongest for the middle-income group. These findings indicate that the association between reading skills and behaviors associated with ADHD is present in preschool children and that emergent literacy skills may mediate the link between ADHD and RD found in older children.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
2.
Alexander, K.L., Entwisle, D.R., & Dauber, S.L. (1993). Firstgrade classroom behavior: Its short- and long-term consequences for school performance. Child Development , 64, 801-814.
3.
Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory. New York: Oxford University Press.
4.
Baker, L., & Cantwell, D.P. (1982). Developmental, social, and behavioral characteristics of speech and language disordered children. Child Psychiatry andHuman Development, 12, 195-206.
5.
Beitchman, J.H., Nair, R., Clegg, M., Ferguson, B., & Patel, P.G. (1986). Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children with speech and language disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 25, 528-535.
6.
Beitchman, J.H., Tuckett, M., & Batth, S. (1987). Language delay and hyperactivity in preschoolers: Evidence for a distinct subgroup of hyperactives. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 32, 683-687.
7.
Bowers, P.G. (1995). Tracing symbol naming speed's unique contributions to reading disabilities over time. Reading and Writing, 7, 189-216
8.
Bowers, P.G., & Wolf, M. (1993). Theoretical links among naming speed, precise timing mechanisms and orthographic skill in dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 5, 69-85.
9.
Bowey, J.A. (1995). Socioeconomic status differences in preschool phonological sensitivity and first-grade reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 476-487.
10.
Brinton, B., & Fujiki, M. (1993). Language, social skills, and socio-emotional behavior . Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 24, 194-198.
11.
Burgess, S.R., & Lonigan, C.J. (1998). Bidirectional relations of phonological sensitivity and prereading abilities: Evidence from a preschool sample. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 70, 117-141.
12.
Butler, S.R., Marsh, H.W., Sheppard, M.J., & Sheppard, J.L. (1985). Seven-year longitudinal study of the early prediction of reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 349-361.
13.
Cantwell, D.P., Baker, L., & Mattison, R.E. (1979). The prevalence of psychiatric disorder in children with speech and language disorder. American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 18, 450-461.
14.
Cantwell, D.P., & Satterfield, J.H. (1978). The prevalence of academic underachievement in hyperactive children. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 3, 168-171.
15.
Clay, M.M. (1979). The early detection of reading difficulties (3rd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
16.
Conners, C.K. (1969). A teacher rating scale for use in drug studies with children. American Journal of Psychiatry,126, 884-888.
17.
Conners, C.K. (1994). Conners rating scales. In M. E. Maruish (Ed.), The use of psychological testing for treatment planning and outcome assessment (pp. 550-578). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
18.
Dubow, E.F., & Ippolito, M.F. (1994). Effects of poverty and quality of the home environment on changes in the academic and behavioral adjustment of elementary school-age children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 23, 401-412.
19.
Dunn, L.M., & Dunn, L.M. (1981). Peabody picture vocabulary test-Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service .
20.
Feitelson, D., & Goldstein, Z. (1986) Patterns of book ownership and reading to young children in Israeli school-oriented and nonschooloriented families. ReadingTeacher, 39, 924-930.
21.
Felton, R.H., & Wood, F.B. (1992). A reading level match study of nonword reading skills in poor readers with varying IQ. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 318-326.
Gertner, B.L., Rice, M.L., & Hadley, P.A. (1994). Influence of communicative competence on peer preferences in a preschool classroom. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 913-923.
24.
Heath, S.B. (1982) What no bedtime story means: Narrative skills at home and school. Language in Society, 11, 49-76.
25.
Hinshaw, S.P. (1992). Externalizing behavior problems and academic underachievement in childhood and adolescence: Causal relationships and underlying mechanisms . Psychological Bulletin,111, 127-155.
26.
Hinshaw, S.P., Morrison, D.C., Carte, E.T., & Cornsweet, C. (1987). Factorial dimensions of the revised behavior problems checklist: Replication and validation within a kindergarten sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 309-327.
27.
Horn, W.F., & Packard, T. (1985). Early identification of learning problems: A meta-analysis . Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 597-607.
28.
Jenkins, S., Bax, M., & Hart, H. (1980). Behaviour problems in preschool children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 5-17.
29.
Juel, C., Griffith, P., & Gough, P. (1986). Acquisition of literacy: A longitudinal study of children in first and second grade. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 243-255.
30.
Kellam, S.G., Branch, J.D., Agrawal, K.C., & Ensminger, M.E. (1975). Mental health and going to school. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
31.
Kellam, S.G., Werthamer-Larsson, L., Dolan, L.J., Hendricks Brown, C., Mayer, L.S., Rebok, G.W., Anthony, J.C., Laudolff, J., & Edelsohn, G. (1991). Developmental epidemiologically based preventive trials: Baseline modeling of early target behaviors and depressive symptoms . American Journal of Community Psychology, 19, 563-584.
32.
Kirk, S.A., McCarthy, J.J., & Kirk, W.D. (1968). Illinois test of psycholinguistic abilities. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
33.
Kohn, M., & Parnes, B. (1974). Social interaction in the classroom: A comparison of apathetic-withdrawn and angry-defiant children. Journal of GeneticPsychology, 125, 165-175.
34.
Kohn, M., & Rosman, B.L. (1972). A social competence scale and symptom checklist for the preschool child: Factor dimensions, their cross-instrument generality, and longitudinal persistence. Developmental Psychology, 6, 430-444.
35.
Kohn, M., & Rosman, B.L. (1973). A two-factor model of emotional disturbance in the young child: Validity and screening efficiency. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 14, 31-56.
36.
Lam, C.M., & Beale, I.L. (1991). Relations among sustained attention, reading performance, and teachers' ratings of behavior problems. Remedial and Special Education, 12(2), 40-47.
37.
Lentz, F.E. (1988). Effective reading interventions in the regular classroom. In J. L. Graden, J. E. Zins, & M. J. Curtis (Eds.), Alternative educational delivery systems: Enhancing instructional options for all students. Washington, DC: National Association of School Psychologists.
38.
Light, J.G., Pennington, B.F., Gilger, J.W., & DeFries, J.C. (1995). Reading disability and hyperactivity disorder: Evidence for a common genetic etiology. Developmental Neuropsychology , 11, 323-335.
39.
Lonigan, C.J. (1994). Reading to preschoolers exposed: Is the emperor really naked?Developmental Review, 14, 303-323.
40.
Lonigan, C.J., Anthony, J.L., Bloomfield, B.G., Dyer, S.M., & Samwel, C.S. (in press). Effects of two preschool shared reading interventions on the emergent literacy skills of children from low-income families. Journal of Early Intervention.
41.
Lonigan, C.J., Burgess, S.R., Anthony, J.L., & Barker, T.A. (1998). Development of phonological sensitivity in two- to five-year-old children. Journal of Educational Psychology , 90, 294-311.
42.
Lonigan, C.J., Samwel, C.S., & Anthony, J.L. (1998). Relation between emergent literacy skills and temperament in preschool children. Manuscript in preparation.
43.
Lonigan, C.J., & Whitehurst, G.J. (1998). Relative efficacy of parent and teacher involvement in a shared-reading intervention for preschool children from low-income backgrounds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 17, 265-292.
44.
Lynam, D., Moffitt, T.E., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1993). Explaining the relation between IQ and delinquency: Class, race, test motivation, school failure, or self-control?Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 187-196.
45.
McBride-Chang, C., & Manis, F.R. (1996). Structural invariance in the associations of naming speed, phonological awareness, and verbal reasoning in good and poor readers: A test of the double deficit hypothesis. Reading and Writing , 8, 323-339.
46.
McCormick, C.E., & Mason, J.M. (1986). Intervention procedures for increasing preschool children's interest in and knowledge about reading. In W. H. Teale & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading (pp. 90-115). Norwood, NJ : Ablex.
47.
McGee, R., Partridge, F., Williams, S., & Silva, P.A. (1991). A twelve year follow-up of preschool hyperactive children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 224-232.
48.
McMichael, P. (1979). The hen or the egg? Which comes first: Antisocial emotional disorders or reading disability?British Journal of Educational Psychology, 49, 226-238.
49.
Newcomer, P.L., & Hammill, D.D. (1988). Test of language development-Primary (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
50.
Raz, I.S., & Bryant, P. (1990). Social background, phonological awareness and children's reading. British Journal of Developmental Psychology , 8, 209-225.
51.
Rutter, M. (1974). Emotional disorder and educational underachievement. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 49, 249-256.
52.
Sénéchal, M., LeFevre, J., Hudson, E., & Lawson, E.P. (1996). Knowledge of storybooks as a predictor of young children's vocabulary. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 520-536.
53.
Sénéchal, M., LeFevre, J., Thomas, E.M., & Daley, K.E. (1998). Differential effects of home literacy experiences on the development of oral and written language. Reading Research Quarterly, 13, 96-116.
54.
Share, D.L., Jorm, A.F., MacLean, R., & Mathews, R. (1984). Sources of individual differences in reading acquisition . Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1309-1324.
Shaywitz, S.E., Fletcher, J.M., & Shaywitz, B.A. (1994). Issues in the definition and classification of attention deficit disorder. Topics in Language Disorders, 14, 1-25.
57.
Shaywitz, S.E., & Shaywitz, B.A. (1993). Learning disabilities and attention deficits in the school setting. In Lynn J. Meltzer (Ed.), Strategy assessment and instruction for students with learning disabilities: From theory to practice (pp. 221-245). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
58.
Smith, S.S., & Dixon, R.G. (1995). Literacy concepts of low- and middle-class four-year-olds entering preschool. Journal of Educational Research, 88, 243-253.
59.
Stanovich, K.E. (1988). Explaining the differences between the dyslexic and the garden-variety poor reader: The phonological-core variable-difference model. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 21, 590-612.
60.
Stanovich, K.E., & Siegel, L.S. (1994). Phenotypic performance profile of children with reading disabilities: A regression-based test of the phonological-core variable-difference model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 24-53.
61.
Stevenson, H.W., & Newman, R.S. (1986). Long-term prediction of achievement and attitudes in mathematics and reading. Child Development, 57, 646-659.
62.
Sulzby, E., & Teale, W. (1991). Emergent Literacy. In R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 727-758). New York: Longman .
63.
Teale, W.H. (1986). Home background and young children's literacy development. In W. H. Teale & E. Sulzby (Eds.), Emergent literacy: Writing and reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
64.
Teale, W. H., & Sulzby, E. (Eds.). (1986). Emergent literacy: Writing and reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Vaughn, S., Hogan, A., Lancelotta, G., Shapiro, S., & Walker, J. (1992). Subgroups of children with severe and mild behavior problems: Social competence and reading achievement. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21, 98-106.
67.
Velting, O.N., & Whitehurst, G.J. (1997). Inattention-hyperactivity and reading achievement in children from low-income families: A longitudinal model. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 25, 321-331.
68.
Wagner, R.K., & Torgesen, J.K. (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological Bulletin,101, 192-212.
69.
Wagner, R.K., Torgesen, J.K., Laughon, P., Simmons, K., & Rashotte, C.A. (1993). The development of young readers' phonological processing abilities. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 1-20.
70.
Wagner, R.K., Torgesen, J.K., & Rashotte, C.A. (1994). The development of reading-related phonological processing abilities: New evidence of bidirectional causality from a latent variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology , 30, 73-87.
71.
Wagner, R.K., Torgesen, J.K., Rashotte, C.A., Hecht, S.A., Barker, T.A., Burgess, S.R., Donahue, J., & Garon, T. (1997). Changing relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: A 5-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology , 33, 468-479.
72.
Whitehurst, G.J. (1997). Language processes in context: Language learning in children reared in poverty. In L. B. Adamson & M. A. Romski (Eds.), Research on communication and language disorders: Contribution to theories of language development (pp. 233-266). Baltimore: Brookes.
73.
Whitehurst, G.J., & Lonigan, C.J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 848-872.
