Article
Production of morphologically complex words in the narrative and expository writing of third- and fourth-grade children with and without ADHD
| e-ISSN | 2508-5948 |
| Metrics | Views 0 / Downloads 0 |
Abstract
Purpose: Writing draws on morphologically complex words, which children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be constrained in producing. Taking words produced in actual compositions as the unit of analysis, the present study aimed to compare how often and how diversely third- and fourth-grade children with and without ADHD used morphologically complex words across two genres.Methods: Thirty-five children (17 with ADHD and 18 typically developing [TD]) whose reading and spelling were within the average range completed a narrative and an expository writing task. Words were classified as single, inflected, derived, or compound. For each word type, the rate of use per T-unit and the number of different words were computed, and four word-level writing errors (morpheme omission, spelling, inappropriate application, and semantic substitution) were counted. Data were analyzed using three-way mixed ANOVAs (group × genre × word type).Results: Only the group main effect was significant for the rate of use, with no interaction involving group. For the number of different words, the group main effect and every interaction involving group were significant, including the three-way interaction. In narrative writing, word-type differentiation was more graded in the TD group, although a direct between-group comparison of the derived–compound contrast was not significant. Spelling errors predominated in both groups, with no significant group difference detected.Conclusions: Children with ADHD allocated morphological resources similarly to TD children but produced fewer different words; because they also produced fewer words overall and this measure was not length-normalized, this may partly reflect lower overall text production and is interpreted cautiously as a potential rather than established reduction in lexical–morphological diversity, descriptively most apparent for derived words in narrative writing. Assessment and intervention should address diversity by genre and word type, not frequency alone.