Predictive accuracy of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning inchildren with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and reading difficulties

The predictive accuracy of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML; Sheslow & Adams, 1990) over and above more standardized diagnostic tools in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disabilities (RD) was examined. Fifty-three children with ADHD, 63 with RD, 63 with ADHD-RD, and 112 normal comparison children were administ ered the WRAML, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III; Wechsler, 1991), the Achenbach (1991) Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL), and the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (WJ-R; W oodcock & Johnson, 1989). Results of a series of discriminant function anal yses revealed that the academic, intellectual, and behavioral measures coul d correctly classify 73.1% of children, but the WRAML subtests alone were a ble to correctly classify only 58.5% of participants. Combining all of the memory, academic, intellectual, and behavioral measures resulted in 77.5% o f cases being correctly classified. These results suggest that the use of a measure of memory functioning such as the WRAML did not significantly impr ove the predictive accuracy of a diagnosis of ADHD, RD, or both over and ab ove more standard diagnostic academic, intellectual, and behavioral measure s.