Mitigation of a Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay at Toddlerhood and ADHD Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence from the GUSTO Cohort.

Mitigation of a Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay at Toddlerhood and ADHD Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence from the GUSTO Cohort. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2020 Jan 03;: Authors: Goh SKY, Yang H, Tsotsi S, Qiu A, Chong YS, Tan KH, Pei-Chi LS, Broekman BFP, Rifkin-Graboi A Abstract There is accumulating evidence of a prospective relation between early language problems and ADHD, a disorder associated with deficits in executive functioning. However, little is known regarding this link among bilingual children. Here, we investigate whether (i) the prediction from language to ADHD may be lower among bilinguals, and (ii) explore if this moderation can be explained by differential executive functioning ability. Utilising a prospective sample of 408 South-East Asian toddlers, bilingual exposure as a moderator of the link between language delay at 24 months to ADHD intermediate diagnosis at 54 months was first examined with an interaction model. Next, structural equation mediated moderation models examined if the proposed moderation could be explained by executive function measures of Snack Delay and Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task, when children were 41 months. Results indicate that higher levels of bilingual exposure moderated the prospective risk of language delay to ADHD diagnosis (Predominantly single-language exposed OR = 6.37; p = .011; Predominantly dual-language exposed OR = 0.30, p =...
Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research