Italian Battery for ADHD (BIA). Evaluation of the discriminatory capacity in children with ADHD, ODD or SLD symptoms

This paper is aimed at investigating the clinical properties of the Italian Battery for ADHD (BIA) in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) markers and evaluating the cognitive processes involved in these developmental disorders. The participants were: 133 with typical development (TD), 41 children with ADHD-traits, 14 with ODD-traits and 15 with SLD-traits. All participants were assessed using the BIA tests and other non-executive tests in order to control for executive and non-executive components. Results showed that BIA is effective to discriminate between the ADHD and TD group, in particular as regarding four specific tests assessing inhibitory control and sustained attention: Ranette, Auditory Attention, Numeric Stroop (errors) and CP (omissions). On the other hand, children with ODD performed more poorly than TD on MF and CP supporting the presence of impulsivity and visual search deficit in this group of children, while the SLD did not show any significant impairment. Results have been discussed in terms of the capac-ity of the BIA to distinguish children with ADHD, ODD or SLD.