Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a disorder often diagnosed in early childhood. Children often demonstrate symptoms of inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsivity in their behavior. These behavior symptoms must be present in at least two settings, such as home and school, to warrant a diagnosis. A reading disorder is a type of learning disability where children show deficits in their ability to decode words, understand meaning, and read fluently. While different disorders, ADHD and reading disorders both impact a child's school performance and may overlap in diagnosis in some children.
Symptoms of Inattention in ADHD
There are three subtypes of ADHD that a child can be diagnosed with. The first is the predominantly inattentive type, wherein the child displays mostly inattention with little or no hyperactivity/impulsivity. Symptoms of inattention include lack of attention to detail, trouble focusing and concentrating, not listening to others, appearing distracted, difficulty remaining organized, being forgetful, and difficulty following instructions. Children with inattentive symptoms often appear careless and disengaged from others, being unable to concentrate on tasks.
Symptoms of Hyperactivity and Impulsivity in ADHD
The second type of ADHD is the predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type. Symptoms of hyperactivity include fidgeting or wiggling when seated, difficulty remaining sitting down, constantly talking, struggling to do activities quietly, always moving, and running, jumping or climbing continuously. Impulsive symptoms may include impatience, inability to wait for a turn, interrupting others' conversations or activities, or yelling out answers out of turn. Some children demonstrate a combination of both inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms, leading to a diagnosis of the combined type of ADHD.
Basic Reading Skills
Children with a reading disorder often demonstrate significant deficits in the most fundamental reading skills. Young children learn to identify letters and connect both name and sound to them. The understanding of phonemes, the sounds letters make when put together, is important to understand language as well. Through these skills, children become able to connect letters and sounds and use this to sound out new words. Children with a reading disorder are unable to do so efficiently, making it difficult for them to learn and understand new words. The National Center for Learning Disabilities notes that a lack of phoneme awareness can lead to significant difficulties with reading as a child gets older, making it important to teach these basic skills early on.
Reading Comprehension and Fluency
When children have a reading disorder, they often lack fluency in their reading. Children who read fluently can quickly recognize and decode words, with emphasis on the most important information. This helps children to better understand what they are reading. Similarly, children with reading disorders have difficulties interpreting meaning from what they read, recalling information, and using what they have read to fully understand the passage. Reading comprehension is a complex process that requires children to understand words, read fluently and search for meaning. For children with reading disorders, their lack of basic reading abilities makes it difficult to understand what they read and use this information in the future.
Overlap Between the Disorders
Many children with ADHD demonstrate overlapping difficulties in learning. The National Resource Center on ADHD reports that as many as 50 percent of children with ADHD also have a learning disorder. However, it is important to tease apart the difference between these two disorders to ensure that both diagnoses are warranted. While some children do experience both a reading disability and ADHD, there are others whose symptoms may not fit. For example, if a child with symptoms of ADHD cannot perform well in school because he is inattentive, a poor performance in reading may be the result of inattention, not a learning disability.
References
- "Introduction to Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology"; Robert Weis; 2008
- National Center for Learning Disabilities: Reading Comprehension: Reading for Meaning
- National Resource Center on ADHD: Symptoms and Diagnostic Criteria
