Published online September 7, 2009
PEDIATRICS Vol. 124 No. 4 October 2009, pp. e633-e639 (doi:10.1542/peds.2009-0143)
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bennett, A. E.
Right arrow Articles by Blum, N. J.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Bennett, A. E.
Right arrow Articles by Blum, N. J.
Related Collections
Right arrow Developmental/Behavior
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Facebook   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

ARTICLE

Identifying Learning Problems in Children Evaluated for ADHD: The Academic Performance Questionnaire

Amanda E. Bennett, MDa,b, Thomas J. Power, PhDb,c, Ricardo B. Eiraldi, PhDb,c, Stephen S. Leff, PhDb,c and Nathan J. Blum, MDa,b

a Division of Child Development, Rehabilitation, and Metabolic Disease
c Department of Psychology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
b Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the usefulness of the Academic Performance Questionnaire (APQ) to identify low reading and math achievement in children who are being evaluated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

METHODS: Charts of 997 patients who were seen in a multidisciplinary ADHD evaluation program were reviewed. Patients who were in first- through sixth-grade and had complete APQ and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II Basic Reading and Numerical Operations subtests were enrolled in this study. The 271 eligible patients were randomly assigned to a score-development group (n = 215) and a validation group (n = 56). By using data from the score-development sample, APQ questions that predicted low academic achievement were identified and the scores for these questions were entered into a logistic regression to identify the APQ questions that independently predicted low achievement.

RESULTS: Only 2 APQ questions, 1 about reading and 1 about math, independently predicted low achievement. By using these 2 questions, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.834, and the optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity occurred when the total score for the 2 items was >4. This cutoff had a sensitivity of 0.86 and a specificity of 0.63 in the score-development group and a sensitivity of 1.0 and a specificity of 0.53 in the validation sample.

CONCLUSIONS: The APQ may be a useful screening tool to identify children being evaluated for ADHD who need additional testing for learning problems. Although the predictive value of a negative screen on the APQ is good, the predictive value of a positive test is relatively low.

Key Words: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder • learning disorder • screening • developmental-behavioral pediatrics • school-aged children

Abbreviations: ADHD—attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder • PCP—primary care provider • APQ—Academic Performance Questionnaire • WIAT-II—Wechsler Individual Achievement Test II • ROC—receiver operating characteristic • PPV—positive predictive value • NPV—negative predictive value

Accepted May 29, 2009.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?