Abstract
Background
Children with ADHD and those with intellectual disability (ID) often have problems in daily time management (DTM) and the underlying time-processing ability (TPA). It is, however, less well-known how DTM and TPA may impact children’s everyday autonomy. The purpose of this study was to investigate DTM, TPA and self-rated autonomy in the activities of everyday life among children aged 9-15 years with ADHD (n = 47), with ID (n = 47) and typically developing (TD) children (n = 47).
Method
A descriptive, comparative and cross-sectional design was used. Group comparisons and cluster analysis with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Turkey post-hoc tests and bootstrapping were used to analyse the data.
Results
Children with ADHD and those with ID had significantly lower TPA and DTM than TD children. However, there was a considerable heterogeneity not explained by age, ranging from skilled to having significant problems in TPA among children with ADHD and ID, as shown by cluster analysis. Children with ADHD had lower DTM than those with ID. For all children the levels of self-rated autonomy seemed to follow the level of TPA.
Conclusions
Children with ADHD and those with ID have an increased risk of delayed TPA, affecting their DTM and autonomy. The results indicate a need to measure TPA and tailor interventions for each child.
Keywords:
ADHD, autonomy, child , cluster analysis, intellectual disability, participation, time management
Daily time management and autonomy in school-age children with ADHD, intellectual disabilities, and typically developing children show different patterns