Development of an executive functions (response inhibition, updating,sustained attention) program and examining its effectiveness on symptoms amelioration in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

This research was carried out to develop the educational program of inhibited response, sustained attention, updating, and to examine its impact on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children. Methodology: The method of research is experimental with pre-test and post-test and follow-up design. The population of research included all children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in schools of district 1 , district 4 and psychology clinic of Tehran (district 3) in the academic year 2016-2017. After selecting 30 subjects who met the inclusion criteria of study as the sample of study, 15 of children were assigned to experimental group and 15 children were assigned to control group using random method. To examine attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,diagnostic questionnaire of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was used, and for evaluating executive functions of children, N Beck test, CPT and go-no-go test were used. This program was developed by researchers and children of experimental group participated in this 16-session program , and control group children received no education. findings obtained from covariance analysis and t-test revealed significant difference between mean scores of experimental group and control group in the attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder symptoms. it can be concluded that educational program of inhibited response, sustained attention, updating decreased the symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in experimental group children

Keywords

• executive functions
• children
• attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder