Nouvelles normalités Nouvelles pathologies Nouvelles ... - Psynem

6° 6éme Congresso Congrès Européen Europeo de di Psicopatologia Psychopathologie dell’Infanzia de l’Enfance e et dell’Adolescenza
de l’Adolescence
Nuove Nouvelles normalità normalités Nuove Nouvelles patologie pathologies Nuove pratiche Nouvelles pratiques
SATURDAY, May 7 POSTER SESSIONS
POSTER SESSION 10 -2 Tools for diagnosis, treatment and evaluation/
School
11 - EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF ATTENTION DEFICIT/ HIPERACTIVITY DISORDER
AND LEARNING DIFFICULTIES AT PRIMARY SCHOOL
Efthymios Kakouros (1) , Katerina Maniadaki (2) , Rania Toptsoglou (3)
(1) TEI of Athens, Department of Early Childhood Education (Athens - GR)
(2) TEI of Athens, Department of Social Work (Athens - GR); (3) Psychological Center “ARSI” (Athens - GR)
The objective of this study was to investigate
the possibility of early identification of children
with ADHD, aged 4-5 years, at nursery school by
their educators. One hundred and forty one children,
attending the seven nursery schools of a
small Greek town were screened for the possible
presence of ADHD.
The instrument used was the ADHD Test (Gilliam,
1997) and was completed for each child
by their educators after relevant training by the
researchers. The children identified with possible
presence of ADHD were followed up one to two
years later, and assessed again with the same
instrument by their primary school teachers, who
were unaware of the first evaluation.
A control group, matched for age and sex, was
also used at this stage of the study. The results
revealed that twenty eight children obtained clinical
scores of ADHD during the first evaluation and
514
were reassessed as pupils of the primary school,
along with the 28 participants of the control group.
Almost half of the participants in the clinical group
also obtained clinical scores of ADHD when
assessed by their teachers at primary school, indicating
both a continuation in the symptomatology
of the disorder and high possibilities of early identification
as well. Furthermore, specific aspects
of behaviour like level of co-operation, disruptive
behaviour and aggressive behaviour showed stability
and continuity over time.
To conclude, early identification of ADHD before
children enter primary school is highly recommended
and screening instruments designed for
this purpose are sufficiently reliable. Early identification
may help in designing therapeutic interventions
aiming not only at the reduction of the
primary symptoms of ADHD but at the prevention
of secondary and associate difficulties such as
behaviour problems and learning difficulties.