ADHD May Hinder Safe Street Crossing

Children with ADHD may have more difficulty with crossing the street safely, a new study finds. The problem was not attention, researchers said. In the research study, kids with ADHD did stop and look both ways before crossing. But they did not judge the amount of time needed to cross safely as well as other children. The study included 78 children with ADHD and 39 without ADHD. All were ages 7 to 10. The two groups were matched by age and gender. Kids who took ADHD medicine were asked to skip it for 24 hours ahead of the experiments. Street crossing was done in a virtual environment using an avatar. The children decided when to cross in different virtual situations. Researchers said the children with ADHD were less likely to cross safely than the other children. Several had close calls during their virtual crossings. The journal Pediatrics published the study.