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An Australian study has found that ADHD can harm academic performance and social skills in early primary children. The report concludes that these results underscore the need for earlier recognition and treatment of ADHD in young children.
The researchers tested nearly 400 children between 6 and 8 years of age at 43 Melbourne schools, identifying 179 with ADHD and another 212 without ADHD who will serve as a control group. Those who scored high for ADHD symptoms were more likely to get lower grades and have trouble fitting in with other kids, compared with children without ADHD.
Kids with ADHD also were more likely to have other mental health or developmental disorders, including anxiety, depression and autism, according to the study.
"Already at this stage, which is relatively young, it's very clear the children have important functional problems in every domain we registered," said study lead author Dr. Daryl Efron, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician with the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne. "On every measure, we found the kids with ADHD were performing far poorer than the control children."
The researchers also said they discovered that about 80 percent of the young children with ADHD symptoms had not been diagnosed with the disorder, a finding called "striking" by Dr. David Fassler, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.
