PURPOSES: to compare and characterize the performance of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in metalinguistic tasks and reading with students without behavioral disorders and/or learning disabilities. METHOD: twenty students from the 4th to 8th grade of elementary school took part, fourteen students were males and six females, aged between 9 and 13-year old. The students were divided in two groups, with GI composed by ten students with interdisciplinary diagnosis of ADHD and GII composed of ten students without behavioral disorders and/or learning disorder, paired with GI according to age and grade level. The used procedure was the application of a protocol with tasks of metalinguistic awareness and reading of real words and non-words. RESULTS: there was statistically significant difference between groups in the tasks of syllabic and phonemic manipulation, as well as in tasks of reading real words related to the reading of regular words and irregular words, but also for non-words. CONCLUSION: the students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder showed lower performance in tasks considered to be more complex, such as manipulating syllables and phonemes and reading irregular words, requiring retention, analysis and information retrieval. The difficulties showed in these skills by students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder cannot be attributed to a primary deficit, but as a secondary phenomenon to inattention that interferes directly in their performance.
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Reading; Learning; Linguistics; Education
