Efficacy of Training Executive Functions on the Mother-Child Interaction and Sleep Problems of the Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of training executive functions on the mother-child interaction and sleep problems of the children with ADHD. The present study was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, control group and two-month follow-up period design. The statistical population of the present study included the boys with ADHD in the city of Isfahan in the academic year 2019-20. 30 children with ADHD were selected through multi-stage clustered sampling method and they were randomly accommodated into experimental and control groups (each group of 15 children). The experimental group received eight seventy-five-minute executive function interventions. 3 children from the experimental group and 2 children from the control group were dropped from the study. The applied questionnaires in this study included ADHD questionnaire, mother-child interaction questionnaire and child sleep habit questionnaire. The data from the study were analyzed through repeated measurement ANOVA via SPSS23 software. The results showed that training executive functions has significant effect on the mother-child interaction and sleep problems of the children with ADHD (p<0.001). According to the findings of the present study it can be concluded that training executive functions can be applied as an efficient method to increase the mother-child interaction and decrease sleep problems of the children with ADHD through employing training organization, increasing concentration and carefulness, reinforcing working memory and avoiding response.