ANALYZING OF WECHSLER INTELLIGENCE SCALE FOR CHILDREN-REVISED (WISC-R) IN ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: PREDICTIVE VALUE OF SUBTESTS, KAUFMAN AND BANNATYNE CATEGORIES

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of intelligence quotients scores (IQs), subtests of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and Kaufman's and Bannatyne's categories scores which are the sums of subtests of WISC-R in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Another aim is to examine the difference of some neurocognitive skills between the children with ADHD and their unaffected peers by WISC-R subtests. WISC-R's subtest and IQ scores, and scores of Kaufman's and Bannatyne's categories of the children who were diagnosed with only ADHD were compared with the same scores of the children who were in healthy control group (N= 111) and were in ADHD with co morbidity group (N= 82). It was found that the subtest scores (vocabulary, comprehension, digit span, picture completion and block design) of the children with only ADHD and ADHD with comorbidity were significantly lower than healthy group. It was observed that subtests of comprehension (Wald= 5.47, df= 1, p=0.05), digit span (Wald= 16.79, df= 1, p=0.001) and picture completion (Wald= 5.25, df= 1, p=0.05) predicted significantly ADHD. In addition, the categories of freedom from distractibility (Wald= 8.22, df= 1, p=0.01) and spatial abilities (Wald= 12.22, df= 1, p<0.0001) were predictive for ADHD in this study. Problem solving abilities in social processes, auditory short-term memories, visual-spatial abilities and visual configuration abilities of the children with ADHD was observed to be lower than their healthy peers. It was thought that in WISC-R's profile analysis, the categories of freedom from distractibility and spatial abilities can be distinctive in ADHD diagnose.