Multidomain neurocognitive and attentional profile in adults with childhood-diagnosed specific learning disorder: An exploratory case-control study from Turkey

OBJECTIVE: Adult outcomes of childhood-diagnosed specific learning disorder (SLD) remain insufficiently characterized, particularly in non-Western clinical samples. We examined the neuropsychological and attentional profile of Turkish adults with documented childhood SLD. METHOD: In this exploratory case-control study, 20 adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD and 20 age- and sex-comparable healthy controls completed a multimodal assessment including the Stroop Test-TBAG form, Digit Span, Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Self-Report Scale, Adult Reading History Questionnaire, and Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition-Clinician Version (SCID-5-CV) diagnostic interview. The prespecified primary outcome was Stroop total completion time. Four prespecified secondary outcomes-Stroop interference, Digit Span total, Digit Span forward, and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Part A positive-item count-were corrected using Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate. Adjusted analyses used HC3 robust standard errors. RESULTS: Adults with SLD showed substantially longer Stroop total completion time than controls, with a large adjusted group effect that remained robust after additional adjustment for education. All four secondary outcomes met the corrected significance threshold, indicating poorer interference control, lower verbal attention and working-memory performance, and higher adult ADHD symptom burden. Reading-history scores were also consistent with persistent self-reported difficulties. CONCLUSIONS: Adults with childhood-diagnosed SLD showed a measurable multidomain neuropsychological and attentional profile, supporting executive and attentional screening in adult SLD assessment.