The effectiveness of child mindfulness therapy on the main symptoms and Executive dysfunctions of children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder

Child mindfulness therapy reduces ADHD symptoms and executive dysfunctions in girls aged 6 to 12 years. In a quasi-experimental study with 38 girls with ADHD, those who received eight sessions of mindfulness training showed lower ADHD scores and fewer executive function deficits at post-test and at follow-up compared to a control group that received no intervention. The findings suggest that mindfulness training can be a useful approach for managing ADHD-related difficulties in children.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with problems such as failure in executive dysfunctions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of child mindfulness therapy on the main symptoms and executive dysfunctions of children with ADHD. The research method was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up design with the control group. The population of this study consisted of all girls aged 6 to 12 years with ADHD in Mashhad. In this study, 38 girls with ADHD were Selected from normal schools though multi-stage cluster sampling and were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 19) and control (n = 19) groups. Data were collected using the SNAP rating scale (Swanson et al., 1980) and the Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale-Children and Adolescents (Barclay, 2012). For the experimental group, the child's mindfulness therapy was performed in eight sessions and the control group did not receive any intervention during the study. The results showed that training the child mindfulness reduced ADHD scores and executive dysfunctions in post-test and follow-up (p<0.001). Based on the results, it is recommended to use the child mindfulness training to reduce the ADHD symptoms and executive dysfunctions in children with ADHD.