Efficiency of Metaphorical Stories and Literal Instructions on Attention and Response Control in Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder Children

The objective of this study was  assess the efficiency of metaphorical stories and literal instructions on attention and response control in 10-12 years old children with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder.

This research is a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test - follow-up with control group. Participants were selected from 10 to 12 year-old clients of Shiraz education counseling centers who had been diagnosed by a psychiatrist with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. Initial sampling was done according to the available sampling method (diagnosed by a psychiatrist and a psychologist) and was randomly divided into 4 groups of 8 subjects. Three groups of children received verbal intervention in three different ways, including metaphorical stories with musical backgrounds, metaphorical stories without musical backgrounds and simple verbal instructions during 6 sessions for a month and a half. After performing the interventions, data were analyzed by SPSS 23 software using one way ANOVA and two-way repeated measures analysis of variance.

Attention and response control scores significantly increased in all experimental and control groups; however there were no significant differences among 4 groups with various intervention methods.

This study shows that all verbal and nonverbal interventions in groups help children to increase their attention and response control, although there is no significant differences between experimental and control groups. According to increase attention and response control scores in all groups, it seems that being a member of a small group can help ADHD children to improve their attention and response control.