Vineland-II adaptive behavior profile of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or specific learning disorders.
Four Vineland-II item sets give 87.5 % accurate ADHD versus typical classification.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team looked at Vineland-II records for kids with ADHD or specific learning disorders. They pulled out small groups of items that might separate the two diagnoses from each other and from typical peers.
No new tests were given. The work was a blind re-analysis of existing clinic data.
What they found
Four short Vineland-II item sets correctly flagged ADHD versus typical kids 87.5 % of the time. Academic items alone were enough to spot kids with learning disorders.
The cut-offs were simple to score and took only a few minutes.
How this fits with other research
Kaya et al. (2025) tried the same goal with a Stroop test. Their tool reached only 62–64 % accuracy, showing Vineland items work better for this job.
Lunardon et al. (2023) is an apparent contradiction. They found WISC-IV profiles could not separate kids with dyscalculia from controls. The clash clears up when you see they tested IQ subtests, not daily-life skills like the Vineland.
Tullo et al. (2023) extend the idea. They used a moving-objects computer task to separate ADHD, SLD and intellectual disability by learning speed, adding another quick screener to your toolkit.
Why it matters
You already give the Vineland-II for eligibility or progress reports. Before the next meeting, flip to the four item subsets the study flagged. If the child’s scores land above the cut-off, you have fast, low-cost evidence to support an ADHD or SLD label without extra testing. Share the numbers with parents and the school team to speed decisions on services.
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Join Free →Circle the flagged Vineland-II items, apply the cut-offs, and note if the brief score pattern supports ADHD or SLD.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The evaluation of adaptive behavior is informative in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or specific learning disorders (SLD). However, the few investigations available have focused only on the gross level of domains of adaptive behavior. AIMS: To investigate which item subsets of the Vineland-II can discriminate children with ADHD or SLD from peers with typical development. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Student's t-tests, ROC analysis, logistic regression, and linear discriminant function analysis were used to compare 24 children with ADHD, 61 elementary students with SLD, and controls matched on age, sex, school level attended, and both parents' education level. RESULTS: Several item subsets that address not only ADHD core symptoms, but also understanding in social context and development of interpersonal relationships, allowed discrimination of children with ADHD from controls. The combination of four item subsets (Listening and attending, Expressing complex ideas, Social communication, and Following instructions) classified children with ADHD with both sensitivity and specificity of 87.5%. Only Reading skills, Writing skills, and Time and dates discriminated children with SLD from controls. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of Vineland-II scores at the level of item content categories is a useful procedure for an efficient clinical description.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.12.003