Verbal fluency in children: Developmental issues and differential validityin distinguishing children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and two subtypes of dyslexia

Previous research studies have shown that in adults, verbal fluency is impa ired after lesion to the frontal lobes and left temporal lobe. More recentl y, there have been a ew studies reported which indicated that in children, like adults, left hemisphere and frontal lesions result in pronounced effec ts on verbal fluency. The present study examined developmental differences in verbal fluency within a sample of 130 normal children, aged 6 to 12 year s. Additionally, the same verbal fluency test was administered to two subgr oups of children with developmental dyslexia and a group of children with a ttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Analysis of variance (ANOVA ) revealed significant between-group differences by age in the normal child ren. Further, ANOVA demonstrated that the verbal fluency measure was clinic ally useful in differentiating the Language Disorder/Dysphonetic Dyslexic s ubgroup from the Visual-Spatial/Dyseidetic Dyslexic subgroup and the ADHD g roup, with the latter two groups performing within the average range (C) 19 99 National Academy of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.