Four pieces of evidence combine to support the hypothesis that ADHD children have more difficulty in understanding causal relations of the television show when toys are present due to less sustained cognitive engagement. The evidence all points to longer looks at the television, which occurred more frequently in non-ADHD children when toys were present, lead to a greater understanding of causal relations, which attentional inertia theories link to cognitive engagement.
Finally, the reasons presented as to why longer looks do in fact lead to a better understanding of causal relations were addressed. Possibilities include that long looks are more likely than short looks to continue across content boundaries, which allows the viewer to establish causal links among events relatively distant in time. Another explanation is that long looks indicate that the children are engaged in deeper processing of more story content. The conclusion of the study is that ADHD children are just as able to comprehend story information as non-ADHD children when no distractions are present. In essence, ADHD children do not have educational difficulties because they are less able to comprehend the material, but rather they are distracted from the material because it is not as appealing as whatever is distracting them.
This is an important study in establishing an understanding of why ADHD children have educational difficulties. This is vital because children that are not able to comprehend material must be taught differently than those who are perfectly able to comprehend it but are not being held interested by the material....
This study provides a very open-minded approach to ADHD child education that does not make assumptions that ADHD children are less intelligent or unable to achieve academic success. Many studies seem to have a skewed approach, taking the assumption that ADHD children have less academic potential and performing research from that point. This difference is the reason this study should be included in the Hock book "Forty Studies That Changed Psychology." final note regarding this study that relates to many other studies as well: Why is it considered abnormal that children would rather play with toys, being active and building tactile and imaginative skills and improving cognitive development than watch an uninformative, unassuming television comedy? It would seem to indicate a much higher academic potential if a child would rather be doing and physically exploring rather than be sedentary and uninvolved. I am not ADHD, and I am in fact highly intelligent and achieving success academically. If I was put into a room with a toy rocket ship, a radio controlled car, action figures, a video game, and a basketball toy set, I can guarantee I would be playing my heart out rather than numbing my mind to the artistically dissatisfying laugh track of a television sitcom.
Works Cited
Difficulties in Comprehending Causal Relations Among Children With ADHD: The Role of Cognitive Engagement, by: Elizabeth Pugzles Lorch, David Eastham, Richard Milich, Clarese C. Lemberger, Rebecca Polley Sanchez, Richard Welsh, Paul van den Broek, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 0021-843X, February 1, 2004, Vol.…
