THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FORMULATING A STORY REPRESENTATION AMONG CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER AND COMPARISON CHILDREN

Children with ADHD perform more poorly in school than comparison children. Although many factors may play a role in this academic deficit, story comprehension deficits have been identified that reveal difficulties with higher cognitive processes. This study investigated how effectively children with ADHD formulate story representations when given little or no story structure. The production of goal-based stories was the major focus. Children with ADHD and comparison children created a story when no story structure was provided (free story) and when some story structure was provided (4-picture story). The stories were measured for coherence, use of goal-attempt-outcome (GAO) sequences and goal-based story grammar categories. Children with ADHD had difficulty structuring a story and utilizing a goal plan in both story tasks. The provision of story structure reduced some group differences. These results supplement evidence of problems among children with ADHD in using goal plans to formulate stor