Abstract

This article informs about the impact of attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity (ADHD) on the level of analogical reasoning and metapragmatic knowledge. Both abilities ``cognitive and linguistic'' are essential to comprehend certain figurative meanings in speech. The participants are 94 high-class elementary school students. Forty-seven of them present ADHD; the remaining participants do not. A quantitative method was used: both abilities were evaluated individually with the aid of interactive software. The verbal analogical reasoning instrument measured proportional analogies. The metapragmatic knowledge instrument evaluated ambiguous referents, observed dialogue, and unclear instructions. The ADHD participants show a level of development of some cognitive and linguistic abilities, e.g., the verbal analogical reasoning and metapragmatic knowledge, significantly more reduced than that of their peer group, who do not present such disorder. The above probably accounts for the more gradual development of oral language among children who do not suffer from TDAH as compared to that in TDAH children.