Effectiveness of Group Play Therapy on Symptoms of Oppositional Defiant and Behavior Disorder in 6-9 Age Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) suffer from many emotional and behavioral problems. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of group play therapy on symptoms of oppositional defiant and behavior disorder in 6-9 age children with ADHD.
In this interventional study, 20 children with symptoms of ADHD in Isfahan city randomly assigned in experimental and control groups. Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4) was used for collecting the data. The experimental group received group play therapy (the feeling words game, chairs game and balloons of anger) for 8 sessions, whereas no intervention was taken in control group. The Data were analyzed using the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA).
Results indicated that group play therapy has been effected on decreasing the symptoms of ADHD, oppositional defiant and behavior disorder in children with ADHD.
Results are supported the effect of group play therapy on decreasing the symptoms of ADHD, oppositional defiant and behavior disorder in children with ADHD. So, group play therapy can be utilized as a therapeutic intervention for decreasing the psychological problems in these children.