Clinical assessment of sustained attention in preschoolers

In this study we developed preschool versions of two commonly used measures of sustained attention, the continuous performance task (Continuous Performance Task for Preschoolers; CPTP) and the cancellation task (Picture Deletion Task for Preschoolers; PDTP). Sixty children, 20 at each of 3, 4, and 5 years of age, who were healthy and free of developmental or behavioral problems, were tested. Our findings indicate that the level of difficulty of the revised tasks is age appropriate. Further, the tasks appear to be measuring sustained attention because performance decrements were demonstrated across the course of the session and developmental decreases in the frequency of errors were noted. Performances on the CPTP and PDTP were significantly related, but at a modest value, suggesting that the CPTP and the PDTP may be measuring somewhat different dimensions of attention. We conclude that both instruments may be valuable for the assessment of sustained attention in preschoolers.