Analysis of Tasks Used for Assessment of Spatial Function in School children with ADHD

Abstract

Objective.
Identify and detail the difficulties in children with attention deficit disorder in spatial function
tasks.
Method.
24 school children between 6 and 12 years old with diagnosis of attention deficit disorder
were included in the study. Neuropsychological tasks used in the study were divided in graphic tasks, verbal
tasks and a constructive task, all of them included in the Neuropsychological Evaluation for Children,
Neuropsychological Evaluation of the Spatial Integration and Neuropsychological Evaluation of School
Success assessments.
Results.
Analysis of the results has pointed out specific errors in graphic tasks such as
disproportion, disintegration, difficulties with angles, problems with usage of space and inversions. Younger
participants with complex neuropsychological syndromes committed more mistakes. The spatial diffi culties
were accompanied by regulatory, activation, motor and kinesthetic diffi culties. The participants with higher
frequencies of error were those of lower age.
Conclusion.
The results show that children with attention defi cit
disorder diagnosis may have diffi culties in the development of spatial function; therefore, it is necessary to
include a more profound neuropsychological analysis of the domain that allows the investigation of the nature
of the diffi culties and its plausible relation to the development of other functions.