All issues > Volume 30(5); 1987

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1987;30(5):552-559. Published online May 31, 1987.

Attention Sustentation Test in Children with Learning Disables-A Pilot Study.

Chang jun Goe¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Institute of Handicapped Children Seoul, Korea Yonsei University College of Medicine

Abstract

It is well known that one of the characteristic common phenomenon of learning disable is distur- bance in attention, which has been evaluated by subjective observation of parents or teacher which is not accurate, may be different by the observers. It would be worth while to estimate attention deficit in objective method as well as the degree of the severity. A tool is designed to estimate the degree of attention by continuously showing simple design for 3 seconds at different sites on computer screen in random fashion and have the children copy the design at the right sites continuously and by counting the errors in children with learning disables and normal children. These study enrolled, 54 children with learning disables, as control 54 normal children of age 8 to 10, and 52 normal children of age 11 to 12. The error was counted every 100 stimulations and observe the pattern of error numbers at every 100 stimulations until it reached to 400-500 stimulation. In older age group mean error score was ranged 0.9 to 0.7 and younger age group, the mean score ranged 1.71 to 2.45 and the mean error score was evenly distributed without relating to increasing number of stimuilations in control group. The mean error score in learning disables was 9.58 to 8.15 until the stimulation reached to 300. After that the mean error score increased to 15.04 at 400 stimulations in older age group. In younger age group of learning disable the mean error score was 15.48 at first 100 stimulations and decreased 9.07 to 9.24 at each 200 and 300 stimulations. After 400 stimulations, the mean error score increased to 14. 0. The mean error score of learning disable is about 10 times higher than that of normal children and error score increased at 400 stimulations. By this attention sustentation test the attention ability can be measured and this result reflects that the children with learning disables are more distractable to compare with normal children and this test may be useful to estimate the degree of attention deficit.

Keywords :Learning disables; Attention sustentation test