Apr 21, 2014 04:31 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have language problems than kids without the disorder, according to a study HealthDay reported.

Australian researchers found that children who have ADHD are nearly three times more likely to suffer from language and anxiety problems, two crucial areas that affects their academic ability and makes daily life more difficult.

"The differences in academic functioning between children with ADHD and language problems, compared to those with ADHD alone, were quite large and clinically meaningful," Emma Sciberras, researcher and a clinical psychologist and post-doctoral research fellow at Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Victoria, Australia, told HealthDay.

For the study, researchers looked at 6- to 8-year-olds with and without ADHD in Australia.

They found that 40 percent of children in the ADHD group had language problems, compared to 17 percent of children in the control group. Sciberras said rates of language problems were similar in boys and girls with ADHD.

In a separate study, Sciberras and her colleagues examined more than 400 children. They found that more than half of children with ADHD also had anxiety problems. They found that 64 percent of children with ADHD had one or more anxiety issues.

"It is very common for children with ADHD to experience additional difficulties," Sciberras said. "Both of these studies demonstrate that the additional difficulties that go along with ADHD, in this case anxiety and language problems, can make daily functioning even harder for children with ADHD."

Researchers cautioned that language troubles might become more problematic as these kids get older "because social relationships get more complex with age," HealthDay reported.

"If parents are concerned that their child with ADHD are having these problems we'd encourage them to discuss it with their clinicians," Sciberras said.

The findings were recently published online in Pediatrics. 

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