Language and executive functioning in children with ADHD

This study examines language abilities of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and compares these abilities to those of children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing children. Executive functioning, an umbrella term for various higher order cognitive processes, and responsible for goal-directed behaviour, is also examined. Moreover, the study explores the possibility that executive dysfunctioning may be specifically linked to pragmatic language problems. The results of this study showed that children with ADHD differed in pragmatic language production in comparison with typically developing children, and that they performed equally poor as children with SLI in this language domain. With respect to executive functioning, children with ADHD performed worse than both other groups on the measure for inhibition. However, no differences between the three groups were reported for the measures of working memory, planning, cognitive flexibility and non-verbal fluency. Significant correlations between executive functioning and pragmatic language production were not found. The study is of particular relevance to scholars who are interested in the interaction between language (grammar and pragmatics) and cognition (executive functioning)