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Objective: To evaluate longitudinal associations between recreational screen time and sleep in early childhood, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at age 8 to 10 years. Method: Questionnaires from 2,768 mother-child pairs from the Dutch KOALA Birth Cohort Study were used. General estimating equation logistic regression analyses examined associations between screen time and sleep at age 2, 4, and 6, and ADHD at age 8 to 10. Linear regression analysis examined associations between television time, sleep and CBCL/2-3 scores at age 2. Results: Longitudinally, neither screen time nor sleep were associated with ADHD. Cross-sectionally, CBCL/2-3 externalizing symptom scores increased by 0.03 with every hour television time (95% CI 0.002–0.05) and increased by 0.02 per hour of less sleep (95% CI −0.03–−0.01). Conclusion: Despite an association with externalizing symptoms at age 2, screen time and sleep in early childhood were not associated with ADHD. Carefulness is warranted when extrapolating cross-sectional associations at early age to an ADHD diagnosis.

Objective: A new Dutch Child and Youth Act should reduce specialized mental health care for children with symptoms of ADHD. Characteristics of children referred to a specialized ADHD clinic are explored to give direction to this intention. Method: Data of 261 children who underwent a multidisciplinary best practice evaluation (including rating scales, and demographic, psychological, and somatic findings) were analyzed. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to find predictive variables for the need of specialized mental health care. Results: Collected data were heterogeneous. (Sub)clinical total scores on the Teacher Report Form (TRF) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were predictive variables for specialized mental health care. Also children with divorced parents were more often referred to specialized care. Conclusion: (Sub)clinical scores on the CBCL and TRF increased the need for specialized care, but comprehensive assessment of every child with ADHD symptoms was necessary to differentiate between levels of care.

Objective: Children with ADHD have an increased risk of poor academic performance. It is important to identify cognitive processes that may be related to this academic failure. In Western schooling systems, especially language processing skills may be of relevance. The present study, therefore, compares the ability to comprehend complex sentences of individuals with and without ADHD. Method: Fifteen children (aged 8-11) and 15 adolescents (aged 12-16) with ADHD combined subtype are matched for age, gender, and parental level of education to 30 control subjects. Language comprehension is measured using the neuropsychological procedure proposed by Luria and an adapted version of the Token Test. Results: Compared with the control group, children and adolescents with ADHD perform significantly slower on language comprehension tasks. Differences in accuracy are limited. No interaction between age and ADHD is found. Conclusions: Children and adolescents with ADHD are slower and less efficient than matched control subjects with regard to complex sentence comprehension. ( J. of Att. Dis. 2010; 13(4) 374-385)