Our study investigated the role of attention skills in the academic performance of 20 boys with developmental delays (DDs) and 20 boys without delays. Children's attention abilities were estimated from their performance on a novel assessment of sustained attention, as well as teacher reports of attention in the classroom. Children with DDs had slower reaction times, lower hit rates, higher errors of omission, and lower perceptual sensitivity on the attention task. However, the two groups did not differ on proportion of errors of commission. Participants’ teachers also rated boys with DDs as having greater attention problems and lower academic performance than boys without delays. Attention skills moderated the relation between developmental status and academic performance. The academic performance of children without delays was higher when they had higher attention skills. The academic performance of children with delays did not appear to differ based on their attention skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]