title: Referential communication in children with ADHD: challenges in the role of a listener.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Successful communication requires that listeners accurately interpret the meaning of speakers' statements. The present work examined whether children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) differ in their ability to interpret referential statements (i.e., phrases that denote objects or events) from speakers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children (6 to 9 years old), diagnosed with ADHD (n = 27) and typically developing (n = 26), took part in an interactive task in which they were asked by an adult speaker to retrieve objects from a display case. Children interpreted the referential statements in contexts that either did or did not require perspective-taking. Children's eye movements and object choices were recorded. Parents completed questionnaires assessing their child's frequency of ADHD symptoms and pragmatic communicative abilities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Behavioral and eye movement measures revealed that children with ADHD made more interpretive errors and were less likely to consider target referents across the 2 communicative conditions. Furthermore, ADHD symptoms related to children's performance on the communicative task and to parental report of the child's pragmatic skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children with ADHD are less accurate in their interpretations of referential statements. Such difficulties would lead to greater occurrences of miscommunication.
authors.affiliation: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. enilsen@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: Elizabeth S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Nilsen
authors.forename: Leilani
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mangal
authors.forename: Kristi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Macdonald
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003142:Communication; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires