The effectiveness of art therapy with drawing approach on the social skills of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is the most common neuro-developmental disorder in childhood which leads to problems in social skills as well as family life. The purpose of present research is to investigate the role of painting therapies on improving social skills in students at primary school.
This research is based on experimental methodology, with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population includes all primary school ADHD children with 7 to 11 years old in the area three of Kermanshah city which were selected 5 schools through multi-stage cluster sampling. Twenty-four students were selected as sample group and were allocated to experimental and control group equally and randomly. The intervention was performed for experimental group for 10 sessions and twice at week in 45-60 minute. The research instruments were Connors Rating Scale for teachers (CRS) and Gresham & Elliott social skills scale.
In order to analyze data, statistical method of covariance was used. The result showed that social skills significantly increased in the experimental group (P The results showed that art therapy can be used as an suitable method in improving social skills in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.