In summary, there is some evidence for distinguishing between children with FASD and children with ADHD. Using the four-factor model of attention it has been shown that children with FASD have difficulties with encoding and shift, while the children with ADHD have problems with focus and sustain. Other findings have not been consistently reproduced across studies and the usefulness of traditional behavioral observation scales for distinguishing between the two groups has not been proven. The main obstacles to comparison of study findings are the use of different inclusion criteria, definitions and outcome measures. In particular, published studies frequently include children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (variously defined) with or without confirmed FASD in one group.
