Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: Examining its Impact on Educational Functioning

The purpose of this project was to examine the academic and socio-emotional problems experienced by children with and without elevated sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms. SCT refers to a specific set of attentional symptoms, including excessive daydreaming, mental confusion, seeming to be "in a fog," and slowed thinking or behavior. It is a unique pattern of attentional difficulties that are not captured by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study found that SCT can be reliably assessed by teachers using school-wide screening procedures, with SCT being distinct from ADHD inattention and invariant across sex and grade. This study also found children with elevated SCT symptoms to have poorer academic functioning than children without SCT, with findings across different academic methods (including standardized achievement scores and grade point average) and when controlling for ADHD inattentive symptoms.<br>