Syntax comprehension in Persian-speaking students with ADHD

The research aimed to compare syntactic comprehension in children (aged 7–10 years) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically-developing (TD) children. The Persian Syntax Comprehension Test (PSCT) was administered to 70 children diagnosed with ADHD and 70 typically-developing children. Syntactic items measured by this scale were graded in terms of complexity and results were compared for the two groups. A statistically significant difference between the two groups was found when comparing PSCT scores as well as its components including simple, moderate, and complex structures ( p  < 0.001). Among the obtained effect size values, the highest value was for the difference between TD and ADHD children for the complex syntactic structures (SMD = 0.72, 95% CI (0.38–1.06)). In terms of the item-by-item analysis, TD children performed significantly better on more than half of the items of the PSCT than children with ADHD. Persian-speaking children with typical development in the age range 7–10 years outperformed children with ADHD on syntax comprehension. The most significant difference between two groups was in the complex syntactic structures.