Daily functioning profile of children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder: A pilot study using an ecological assessment

Abstract

Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often present with activities of daily living (ADL) performance deficits. This study aimed to compare the performance characteristics of children with ADHD to those of controls based on the Do-Eat assessment tool, and to establish the tool's validity. Participants were 23 children with ADHD and 24 matched controls, aged 6-9 years. In addition to the Do-Eat, the Children Activity Scale-Parent (ChAS-P) and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) were used to measure sensorimotor abilities and executive function (EF). Significant differences were found in the Do-Eat scores between children with ADHD and controls. Significant moderate correlations were found between the Do-Eat sensorimotor scores, the ChAS-P and the BRIEF scores in the ADHD group. Significant correlations were found between performance on the Do-Eat and the ChAS-P questionnaire scores, verifying the tool's ecological validity. A single discriminant function described primarily by four Do-Eat variables, correctly classified 95.5% of the study participants into their respective study groups, establishing the tool's predictive validity within this population. These preliminary findings indicate that the Do-Eat may serve as a reliable and valid tool that provides insight into the daily functioning characteristics of children with ADHD. However, further research on larger samples is indicated.

Daily Performance of Adolescents with Executive Function Deficits: An Empirical Study Using a Complex-Cooking Task

“…Two main types of ecological assessment of EF have been developed and studied [17]: (1) rating scales/questionnaires evaluating EF in common daily situations (at home or in school), such as the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF) [18][19][20] or the Dysexecutive Questionnaire for Children [21] and (2) performance-based assessments. Functional assessments may include (a) functional >"paper and pencil" tasks simulating situations close to daily life tasks but performed in an office, such as the Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-C) [21] or (b) real-life situation tasks with observation of actual performance in a natural environment, such as the Do-Eat [22,23], the Weekly Calendar Planning Assessment [24], or the Children's Cooking Task (CCT) [25].…”

Performance-Based Executive Function Instruments Used by Occupational Therapists for Children: A Systematic Review of Measurement Properties

“…The eight included articles reported on five performance-based EF assessment tools: (1) Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-C) [ 20 ], (2) Children's Cooking Task (CCT) [ 21 – 23 ], (3) Children's Kitchen Task Assessment (CKTA) [ 24 ], (4) Do-Eat [ 25 , 26 ], and (5) PETA [ 27 ]. In combination, the tools were tested among typically developing children and children with conditions between the ages of 5-12 years old ( n = 684) from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds in several countries.…”

Development of a Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Program for Executive Functions in Students with Developmental Dyslexia

“…This process of strategy internalization is recommended by the different models of self-regulated learning (Zimmerman, 2002;Pin-trich, 2000;Rosário, 2004), and EF intervention (Dawson & Guare, 2010;Mason et al, 2012;Harris et al, 2012). In addition, as currently believed, the NR must produce changes in areas that are important to a patient's daily life, that is, it must have ecological value (Wilson, 2013;Rosenblum, Frisch, Deutsh-Castel, & Josman, 2014). Additionally, the selected educational models of self-regulated learning predict three phases for the resolution of a task, engaging different EF components in each one of them: planning (task analysis), execution (acting, monitoring, and controlling) and evaluation (self-reflection) (Pintrich, 2000;Zimmerman, 2002;Rosário, 2004).…”