Motor Performance and Social-Communicative Impairment in Children with ADHD

The Journal of Attention Disorders published research on 11 children with ADHD - Combined Type (ADHD-CT) and 10 typically developing children as the control group.  Each child participated in an upper limb Fitts’ aiming task to measure motor performance and the Social Responsiveness Scale t0 measure social-communicative/autistic impairment.

The following results were recorded:

1. Children with ADHD-CT displayed greater variability in their movements, as seen with increased error variance over repeated aiming trials compared with TD controls.


2. Motor performance variability was associated with social-communicative deficits in the ADHD-CT but not in the TD group.

The researchers concluded that further research is needed to determine whether a particular pattern of motor disturbance in children with ADHD-CT may be useful in evaluating children with a more complex ADHD presentation.

Reference:  Nicole Papadopoulos, Nicole J. Rinehart, John L. Bradshaw, John Taffe, and Jennifer McGinley. Is There a Link Between Motor Performance Variability and Social-Communicative Impairment in Children With ADHD-CT: A Kinematic Study Using an Upper Limb Fitts’ Aiming Task. Journal of Attention Disorders January 2015 19: 72-77, first published on July 30, 2012 doi:10.1177/1087054712454569

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