Digital Commons Network^™

Spaced Out: Exploring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Through Animation, Alyssa R. Klapka

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Spaced Out is about a 16-year-old high school student named Penny, who arrives home from school after a long day. She has astronomy homework that is due, and she is determined to sit down and get it done as fast as possible so that she can have some evening time to herself. This all goes awry when Opal, a dragon who is a manifestation of her ADHD, shows up to distract her. Penny must find a way to finish her assignment, not by ignoring Opal and pretending she isn't there, but by embracing the fact that she is a part …

An Exploration Of The Relationships Among Habitual Exercise, Emotion Regulation, And Quality Of Life In College Students With Adhd: A Mixed-Methods Study, Greta Ledoyen

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

College students with ADHD tend to struggle with their academic performance and are less likely to graduate college than their neurotypical peers. Emotion dysregulation, a common symptom of ADHD, can cause significant functional impairment throughout life. Acute exercise improves ADHD symptom severity, yet medication is the first line of treatment. Less is understood about the effectiveness of habitual exercise or ADHD medication on emotion dysregulation and quality of life (QoL). Therefore, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the relationship between habitual exercise, emotion regulation, and QoL in college students with ADHD, and the possible moderating effects of …

The Impact Of Unexpected Chaos On The Development Of A Child With Cognitive, Social, And Emotional Delays: A Case Study, Sarah Brown

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of environmental, educational, and household chaos on the development of an atypically developing child. The study evaluates the contribution and change of parental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures. Following Case Study methodology, this is an in-depth evaluation of one mother and child's experience, including data analysis of the child's social, emotional, and cognitive development before and after chaos. The results of this case study identified the development of a child before and after chaotic events occurred. Parental stress was also identified as a contributing factor in the …

A Structural And Functional Analysis Of Human Brain Mri With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Arjun A. Watane

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects 5-10% of children worldwide. Its effects are mainly behavioral, manifesting in symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. If not monitored and treated, ADHD may adversely affect a child's health, education, and social life. Furthermore, the neurological disorder is currently diagnosed through interviews and opinions of teachers, parents, and physicians. Because this is a subjective method of identifying ADHD, it is easily prone to error and misdiagnosis. Therefore, there is a clear need to develop an objective diagnostic method for ADHD.

The focus of this study is to explore the use of machine language …

Domestic Parent-Child Interaction Problems And Working Memory: The Mediating Role Of Inattentive Adhd Symptoms, Svetha Mohan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore the mediating effects of ADHD Inattentive symptoms on domestic parent-child interaction problems and working memory. Inattentive symptoms in children with ADHD are known to cause forgetfulness, slow processing speed, and negative parent-child interactions. Working memory deficits in phonological short term memory and the central executive are also well-established in children with ADHD. However, it is currently unknown to what extent inattentive symptoms are responsible for home behavior problems in conjunction with phonological working memory deficits. The aims are tested using two validated, common clinical questionnaires: The Teacher Report Form and the Home …

Adhd And Working Memory: The Impact Of Central Executive Deficits And Overwhelming Storage/Rehearsal Capacity On Observed Inattentive Behavior, Michael Kofler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inattentive behavior is considered a core and pervasive feature of ADHD; however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory and inattentive behavior. The current study investigated whether inattentive behavior in children with ADHD is functionally related to domain-general central executive and/or subsidiary storage/rehearsal components of working memory. Objective observations of children's attentive behavior by independent observers were conducted while children with ADHD (n=15) and typically developing children (n=14) completed 10 counterbalanced tasks that differentially manipulated central executive, phonological storage/rehearsal, and visuospatial storage/rehearsal demands. Results of latent variable and effect size confidence interval analyses …

Hyperactivity In Boys With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Ubiquitous Core Symptom Or Manifestation Of Working Memor, Jennifer Bolden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hyperactivity is currently considered a core and ubiquitous feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory (WM) and activity level. The current study investigated whether children s activity level is functionally related to WM demands associated with the domain-general central executive and subsidiary storage/rehearsal components using tasks based on Baddeley s (2007) WM model. Activity level was objectively measured 16 times per second using wrist- and ankle-worn actigraphs while 23 boys between 8 and 12 years of age completed control tasks and visuospatial/phonological WM tasks of increasing memory …

Adhd And Stop-Signal Behavioral Inhibition: Is Mean Reaction Time Contaminated By Exposure To Intermittent Stop-Signals?, Robert Alderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates two recently identified threats to the construct validity of behavioral inhibition as a core deficit of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on the Stop-signal task: calculation of mean reaction time from go-trials presented adjacent to intermittent stop-trials, and non-reporting of the stop-signal delay metric. Children with ADHD (n=12) and typically developing children (TD) (n=11) were administered the standard stop-signal task and three variant stop-signal conditions. These included a No-Tone condition administered without the presentation of an auditory tone; an Ignore-Tone condition that presented a neutral (i.e., not associated with stopping) auditory tone; and a second Ignore-Tone condition …

Classroom Observation Of Children With Adhd And Their Peers: A Meta-Analytic Review, Michael Kofler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Meta-analysis of 23 between-group direct observation studies of children with ADHD and typically developing peers indicates significant deficiencies in children with ADHD's ability to pay attention in classroom settings. Comparison with 59 single case design studies of children with ADHD suggests generalizability of between-group comparisons. Weighted regression analysis determined that several methodological differences – sample characteristics, diagnostic procedures, and observational coding schema – have significant effects on observed levels of attentive behavior in the classroom. Best case estimation indicates that after accounting for these factors, children with ADHD are on-task approximately 65% of the time compared to 85% for their …

Students With Either Specific Learning Disabilities Or With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Perceptions Of Self As Learner In Online Courses At Florida Virtual School And In The Traditional Learning Environment, Theresa Smouse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research study was to investigate the perception of self as learner for students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) or with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Students who had completed at least one mathematics or science course at Florida Virtual School, an online learning environment, were surveyed concerning their perception of self as learner in the online learning environment and in the traditional learning environment in 6 basic areas: feelings of success; level of comfort; relationship with teachers; and access to, communication with and feedback from teachers; and advantages and disadvantages of each learning environment. Results of …