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Visual attention and academic performance in children with developmental disabilities and behavioural attention deficits

Kirk, Hannah E.; Gray, Kylie; Riby, Deborah M.; Taffe, John; Cornish, Kim M.

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Authors

Hannah E. Kirk

Kylie Gray

John Taffe

Kim M. Cornish



Abstract

Despite well-documented attention deficits in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), distinctions across types of attention problems and their association with academic attainment has not been fully explored. This study examines visual attention capacities and inattentive/hyperactive behaviours in 77 children aged 4 to 11 years with IDD and elevated behavioural attention difficulties. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 23), Down syndrome (DS; n = 22), and non-specific intellectual disability (NSID; n = 32) completed computerized visual search and vigilance paradigms. In addition, parents and teachers completed rating scales of inattention and hyperactivity. Concurrent associations between attention abilities and early literacy and numeracy skills were also examined. Children completed measures of receptive vocabulary, phonological abilities and cardinality skills. As expected, the results indicated that all groups had relatively comparable levels of inattentive/hyperactive behaviours as rated by parents and teachers. However, the extent of visual attention deficits varied as a result of group; namely children with DS had poorer visual search and vigilance abilities than children with ASD and NSID. Further, significant associations between visual attention difficulties and poorer literacy and numeracy skills were observed, regardless of group. Collectively the findings demonstrate that in children with IDD who present with homogenous behavioural attention difficulties, at the cognitive level, subtle profiles of attentional problems can be delineated.

Citation

Kirk, H. E., Gray, K., Riby, D. M., Taffe, J., & Cornish, K. M. (2016). Visual attention and academic performance in children with developmental disabilities and behavioural attention deficits. Developmental Science, 20(6), Article e12468. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12468

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 30, 2016
Online Publication Date Sep 21, 2016
Publication Date Sep 21, 2016
Deposit Date Nov 8, 2017
Publicly Available Date Nov 8, 2017
Journal Developmental Science
Print ISSN 1363-755X
Electronic ISSN 1467-7687
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 6
Article Number e12468
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12468
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1344429

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Kirk, Hannah E., Gray, Kylie, Riby, Deborah M., Taffe, John & Cornish, Kim M. (2017). Visual attention and academic performance in children with developmental disabilities and behavioural attention deficits. Developmental Science 20(6): e12468 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12468. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.






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