Efficacy of Training Executive Functions on the Self-Control of the Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The present study is conducted to investigate the effectiveness of executive function training on self-control in children with ADHD. It is a quasi-experimental study with pretest, posttest, control group design, and two-month follow-up period. The statistical population includes the boys with ADHD in the city of Isfahan during the 2019-20 school year. Thirty children with ADHD were selected by a multistage cluster sampling method and randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group (each group consisted of 15 children). The experimental group received eight seventy-five-minute executive function interventions. Three children from the experimental group and two children from the control group were excluded from the study. The questionnaires used in this study included the ADHD questionnaire and the self-control questionnaire. The data of the study were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA using SPSS 23 software. The results showed that executive function training had a significant effect on the self-control of children with ADHD (p<0.001). According to the results, executive function training can be used as an efficient method to increase the self-control of children with ADHD by training organization, increasing concentration and attention, strengthening working memory, and avoiding responses.