Comparing the Performance of Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Normal people in Verbal Comprehension Components using the Wechsler Test: A Gender-based study in Elementary Students

Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder suffer from a variety of cognitive and behavioral problems. Research shows that language plays a role as an intermediary in cognitive and behavioral control in this disorder. The present research aimed at comparing the verbal performance in different kinds of categories of this disorder and also comparing it with normal students. The sample of this research consists of 240 people. 180 individuals (90 girls and 90 boys) were selected from among the students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who had referred to the education department-affiliated clinic in the city of Shahriar in academic year 2017-2018 and the subjects of the control group were randomly selected from among the normal students (30 girls and 30 boys) and the data were collected using Wechsler's neuropsychological scale. The results showed that students with attention/ hyperactivity disorder generally have a lower verbal comprehension than normal students; moreover, it was found that from among the three categories of this disorder, the hyperactive-impulsive group showed the significantly lowest performance. Accordingly, it can be concluded that verbal comprehension plays an important role in the regulation of students' cognitive and behavior and should be emphasized in therapeutic interventio.