Multidomain neurocognitive and attentional profile in adults with childhood-diagnosed specific learning disorder: An exploratory case-control study from Turkey

AI Summary

Adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD exhibited substantially longer Stroop total completion times than controls, with a large adjusted group effect robust to education.
SLD participants demonstrated poorer interference control, lower verbal attention and working memory, and higher adult ADHD symptom burden versus healthy controls.
Findings indicate persistent reading difficulties and support routine executive and attentional screening in adult assessments for childhood-diagnosed SLD.

AI Summary

Four prespecified secondary outcomes-Stroop interference, Digit Span total, Digit Span forward, and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Part A positive-item count-were corrected using Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate.

CONCLUSIONS: Adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD showed a measurable multidomain neuropsychological and attentional profile, supporting executive and attentional screening in adult SLD assessment.

Basic summary

Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2026 Jul 18:1-10. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2026.2700776. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Adult outcomes of childhood-diagnosed specific learning disorder (SLD) remain insufficiently characterized, particularly in non-Western clinical samples. We examined the neuropsychological and attentional profile of Turkish adults with documented childhood SLD.

METHOD: In this exploratory case-control study, 20 adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD and 20 age- and sex-comparable healthy controls completed a multimodal assessment including the Stroop Test-TBAG form, Digit Span, Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Self-Report Scale, Adult Reading History Questionnaire, and Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition-Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV) diagnostic interview. The prespecified primary outcome was Stroop total completion time. Four prespecified secondary outcomes-Stroop interference, Digit Span total, Digit Span forward, and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Part A positive-item count-were corrected using Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate. Adjusted analyses used HC3 robust standard errors.

RESULTS: Adults with SLD showed substantially longer Stroop total completion time than controls, with a large adjusted group effect that remained robust after additional adjustment for education. All four secondary outcomes met the corrected significance threshold, indicating poorer interference control, lower verbal attention and working-memory performance, and higher adult ADHD symptom burden. Reading-history scores were also consistent with persistent self-reported difficulties.

CONCLUSIONS: Adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD showed a measurable multidomain neuropsychological and attentional profile, supporting executive and attentional screening in adult SLD assessment.

PMID:42471237 | DOI:10.1080/23279095.2026.2700776

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