A Comparison Of ADD/H Children and Clinical Controls on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)

Thirty-eight consecutive referrals to an outpatient pediatric diagnostic clinic for children with deficiencies in academic performance were classified as either (a) having Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity (ADD/H) or (b) non-ADD/H clinical controls based upon DSM-III criteria and multi-situational parent and teacher behavior ratings with standardized scales. All participants (23 ADD/H and 15 clinical controls) were administered the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). ADD/H subjects differed significantly from clinical controls on the Sequential Processing scale of the K-ABC and on the WISC-R Freedom from Distractability factor. The significantly lower performance of the ADD/H group on the K-ABC Sequential Processing Scale was due primarily to lower scaled scores on the Word Order subtest. These findings are compared to studies of the K-ABC with learning-disabled populations. Applications of the K-ABC to the diagnosis of cognitive deficits and remedial planning in ADD/H children are discussed.