The Impact of Child-Centered Play Therapy on Reduction of Behavioral Symptoms of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been accompanied with so many problems and numerous therapy methods have been introduced to cure children with this disorder. The present study investigate the impact of child-centered play therapy on reduction of behavioral symptoms of children with ADHD. 25 children with ADHD aged 7-12 years were selected through access sampling method and examined through semi-experimental time-series design with no control group. After administering two pre-test، the program of child-centered play therapy was conducted in 24 sessions (twice a week-each session 40 minute). Afterwards the post-test were administered in 4 turns. For pre and post-tests، the CSI-4 (parent form) and for data analysis، the repeated measure ANOVA method were used. The findings suggested that the grades of all four post-tests were significantly less than those of the pre-tests. The highest reduction rate was observed in the first post-test after 4 weeks (8 sessions) play therapy. In general، the results revealed that behavioral symptoms of ADHD reduced significantly with soft slope between session three and session twenty four. The child-centered play therapy could be applied alongside other therapy methods as an effective method for the reduction of behavioral symptoms of ADHD in children.