Abstract Language impairment (Li) is a highly prevalent comorbidity in children with psychiatric
disorders and behavioral problems. The most common psychiatric diagnosis among children with
Li is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and conversely, Li is a frequent comorbidity
found in children with ADHD. Despite the frequent cooccurrence of these two common disorders,
there have been few studies that specifically investigate language abilities of children with ADHD.
Therefore the main objective of this work was to evaluate language profile in ADHD children
and to determine whether there is a specific ADHD related language profile in preschoolers in comparison
with the control group with no ADHD. Fifty-three preschool children were diagnosed as
ADHD and then they were evaluated for their language development. We recruited 36 children fulfilling
our inclusion criteria and had delayed language development then we compared this case
group to a sex and age matched group of children with delayed language with no ADHD
(n = 25). Assessment of intelligence was done for both groups using the Stanford Binnet Test
IV. Evaluation of ADHD was done for both groups using DSM-IV criteria for ADHD. Comprehensive
assessment of language development was done using the Arab Linguistic Test (ALT). EEG
was done for both groups. Our results revealed that children with ADHD showed a significant delay
in language development. But there was no difference between ADHD children and the control
group in total language age, semantics, pragmatics and expressive language age. The only scale that
showed difference between children with ADHD and controls was the receptive language age and
receptive age quotient. There was no significant difference between cases and controls in EEG. We
concluded that it is important to take into consideration language abilities when assessing children
with ADHD and it is informative to include ADHD screening tools when dealing with children with
DLD.