SPECIAL TOPIC: RESEARCH BRIEF Consultation-Based Academic Interventions for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Effects on Reading and Mathematics Outcomes at 1-Year Follow-up

The purpose of this follow-up study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two consultation-based models to enhance the educational functioning of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after 1 year of no treatment. Children (N167) meeting Diagnostic Statistical Manual (4th ed., text revision; 2000) criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were randomly assigned to one of two consultation groups: traditional data-based academic intervention, which consisted of interventions based on consultant-teacher collaboration, representing "consultation as usual," or intensive data-based academic intervention, which consisted of interven- tions using a data-based decision-making model involving ongoing feedback to teachers. Teachers implemented academic interventions over 15 months, and all children were assessed 1 year following the suspension of treatment. A variety of academic outcomes were assessed on five occasions (baseline, 3 months, 12 months, 15 months, and 1-year follow-up). Although previously published reports of this sample using hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated comparable signif- icant positive growth for the majority of these dependent variables for both interven- tion groups, the findings of this follow-up study using hierarchical linear modeling found significant growth trajectories for only 2 of 16 dependent variables. These findings highlight the need for sustained intervention efforts to ameliorate the edu- cational functioning of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.