Hyperactivity is typically diagnosed when children display overactivity, inappropriate inattention, and impulsivity during the school day when involved in tasks that require sustained and voluntary attention. However, distinguishing children with hyperactivity from children with other learning and behavior disorders is often difficult because of an overlap in symptom expression. Some studies have failed to find any factors associated only with the hyperactive syndrome. The present study compared the behavior of students diagnosed as hyperactive or having attention deficit disorder to students diagnosed as having learning disabilities. Symptoms associated with overactivity, inattention, and impulsivity of 19 hyperactive and 17 nonhyperactive (learning disordered) students were observed and counted using a direct diagnostic procedure following a momentary time sampling technique. Analyses revealed that differences between the groups were often qualitative rather than quantitative, and only a few symptoms distinguished one diagnosis from the other. Hyperactive students demonstrated more talking, unsystematic search, and motor impersistence than nonhyperactive students. Nonhyperactive students demonstrated more upper extremity movement and displayed more inattention when engaged in visual tasks than hyperactive students. The findings questioned the use of general categories of behavior such as overactivity to discriminate hyperactive from nonhyperactive students. Implications for diagnosis and the need for continued studies are reviewed.

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In most evaluations of learning disabled children little effort is made to determine the degree of interaction needed between the child and a task to promote correct or effective responding. Most judgments of a child's learning ability are based on data collected by procedures that do not manipulate or extend on initial test performances. This article describes an evaluation procedure that observes the child's ability to use specific learning strategies. By extending on and manipulating initial responses the procedures help determine the amount of interaction needed to influence a child's performance and identify the kinds of instructional interactions that exercise control over the child's responses. Two examples, a copying task and a reading task, are used to illustrate the procedures. The results are purported to have an impact on various instructional and educational decisions.

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