Language Delay in 3-Year-Old Children With ADHD Symptoms.
Little is known about cognition in preschoolers with ADHD and language delay (LD). The objective was to investigate cognitive functions in preschoolers with ADHD symptoms and LD compared with children with ADHD symptoms only and to estimate the frequency of children with ADHD symptoms, co-occurring language delay, and delays on cognitive measures.



Participants were recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The teacher report of expressive language and the cognitive tests from 119 3-year-old children with parent reported ADHD symptoms and LD were compared with those of 258 children with ADHD symptoms only.



The ADHD + LD group performed significantly worse than the ADHD group on most language-related measures. There were no differences between the groups on most nonverbal measures. Single measures had a limited potential of differentiating between the groups.



ADHD symptoms and co-occurring LD in preschoolers were characterized by cognitive deficits associated with both disorders, not with global neurodevelopmental delay.
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway ninamarit.rohrer-baumgartner@fhi.no.
Nina
N
Rohrer-Baumgartner
Oslo University Hospital, Norway.
Pål
P
Zeiner
University of Melbourne, Australia.
Patricia
P
Eadie
Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, Norway University of Oslo, Norway.
Jens
J
Egeland
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Kristin
K
Gustavson
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway University of Oslo, Norway.
Ted
T
Reichborn-Kjennerud
Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Heidi
H
Aase
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014825:Vocabulary
ADHD; coexisting disorders; cognitive ability; language impairment; preschool