Nabila Batool Yazdani, Iram Gul, Sajida Naz, Gul Hussain.
A Comparative study of Cognitive Functioning in Children with ADHD, Autism and Normal Controls.
Pak Paed J Jan ;44(1):36-42.

Objective: The present study was conducted to assess and compare cognitive functioning of Children with Autism, ADHD and Healthy controls. Study Design: Cross sectional comparative study. Place and Duration of the Study: Special Education and local schools located in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Duration was from July 2017 to August 2018. Materials and Methods: A sample of 60 children (8-12 years) with autism, ADHD and healthy controls (20 each) was selected after matching for similar IQ (>75). The symptom severity of autism and ADHD was assessed with Gilliam Autism Rating Scale 2 (GARS 2) and Strengths and Weakness of the ADHD - Symptoms and Normal- Behavior (SWAN) respectively. Cognitive functioning was assessed with NEPSY 1. Results: Analysis indicated a significant difference in all domains of cognitive functioning such as executive functioning (F=7.9; p=0.001), visuospatial processing (F=4.0; p=0.02), immediate memory (F=70.7; p=0.001), delayed memory (F=68.0 p=0.001) and sensorimotor functioning (F=4.1; p=0.02). Post-hoc analysis revealed that cognitive functioning of autistic children was more impaired as compared to ADHD and control group. Conclusion: The study highlighted the importance of cognitive assessment of children with developmental disorders for rehabilitation and management programs.

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