The Effects of Thematic Importance on Recall of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Comparison Children

OF THESIS THE EFFECTS OF THEMATIC IMPORTANCE ON RECALL OF CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER AND COMPARISON CHILDREN This study examined the recall of televised stories for younger (4-6 years) and older (7-9 years) children with and without ADHD under two different viewing conditions (toys present/toys absent). Each child watched two Rugrats television programs, once with toys present and once with toys absent. Immediately after viewing a program, the child completed a free recall of the observed story. Nonreferred children’s recall increased more than ADHD children’s as importance level increased, and older nonreferred children recalled more information overall than older children with ADHD. For the toys condition, children with ADHD had smaller correlations between the story units recalled and the order of these units in the story than did nonreferred children. Children with ADHD demonstrated multiple difficulties in story comprehension. They were less sensitive to thematic importance and they produced less coherent recalls than their nonreferred peers.