Neuropsychological and Academic Performance in Colombian Children with ADHD: A Comparative Study with a Control Group

Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of ADHD on the neuropsychological and academic performance of a sample of Colombian children in primary and secondary education compared to a control group. Method: It was a Quasi-experimental correlational research involving a sample of 194 children from Manizales, comprising 97 children diagnosed with ADHD and 97 controls. The study utilized tasks from the Child Neuropsychological Assessment (ENI) protocol to assess academic and neuropsychological performance. Results: Children with ADHD exhibited lower cognitive, linguistic, and attentional performance with greater variability than their neurotypical peers. They showed deficits in IQ, metalinguistic skills, reading, writing, memory, attention, and executive function, with increased errors and heterogeneity across tasks. Conclusions: For future research, it is necessary to address ADHD through mixed-methods studies that enrich quantitative findings with the lived experiences of children and families affected by ADHD. Additionally, further exploration is needed regarding functional impairment assessment in the Colombian and broader Ibero-American context, including its correlation with later academic performance in higher education.