Author(s)

Sherin Elsheikh^1,2,3, Sanna Kuusikko-Gauffin¹, Soile Loukusa⁴, Manal Omar⁵, Geylan Riad⁶, Hanna Ebeling^1,7, Irma Moilanen^1,7

¹PEDEGO Research Unit, Child Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
²Child Psychiatry Unit, Abbassia Mental Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.
³Centre for Arctic Medicine, Thule Institute, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
⁴Research Unit of Logopedics, Child Language Research Center, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
⁵Institute of Postgraduate Childhood Studies, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁶Faculty of Arts, Psychology Department, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
⁷Clinic of Child Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland.

This study examined the neuropsychological functioning in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and comorbid ASD and ADHD (ASD + ADHD), using five domains of the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY): Attention and Executive Functions, Language, Visuospatial Processing, Sensorimotor Functions, and Memory and Learning. The participants were 6- to 12-year-old Egyptian children with ASD (n = 17), ASD + ADHD (n = 15), ADHD (n = 37), and typical development (TD; n = 29). TD children scored highest on the NEPSY domains, then children with ADHD, followed by children with ASD and ASD + ADHD. Children with ASD or ASD + ADHD performed significantly poorer than TD children on all NEPSY domains. Children with ADHD exhibited significantly poorer performance than TD children on NEPSY domains of Attention and Executive Function, Language, and Memory and Learning. Also, both ASD and ASD + ADHD groups scored significantly lower than ADHD group on all other NEPSY domains except Visuospatial Processing. There were no significant differences between ASD and ASD + ADHD groups on NEPSY. Compared to TD children, our results suggest that ADHD symptoms in children with ASD may worsen the ability to plan, hand motor coordination, and memorizing names. Nevertheless, the presence of ADHD symptoms may mitigate the difficulties that children with ASD exhibit in other neuropsychological areas, such as verbal fluency, hand praxis, finger gnosis, and face memory.

ASD, ADHD, NEPSY, Cognitive Development, Neuropsychological Performance, Executive Function, Comorbidity, Children

Elsheikh, S. , Kuusikko-Gauffin, S. , Loukusa, S. , Omar, M. , Riad, G. , Ebeling, H. and Moilanen, I. (2017) Neuropsychological Performance of Egyptian Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Psychology, 8, 1280-1300. doi: 10.4236/psych.2017.89083.