Effectiveness of the painting therapy, clay therapy and combined methods of family-centered, child-centered on emotion regulation for children with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder

The purpose of this study was the effectiveness of the painting therapy, clay therapy and combined methods on emotion regulation for children with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Research method in this study was single-subject of AB experimental designs. The study population consisted of all children aged 8 to 11 years that attended special centers centers hyperactivity in Tehran in the academic year 2020-2021, from whom 14 children were selected. From among them, 6 children with ADHD (three boys and three girls) were selected based on entry and exit criteria by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to three groups of two. Interventions included the painting therapy, clay therapy and combined methods for each child, according to the child-centered play therapy program with Landers and Bratton Approach (2006) were conducted in 2 sessions (one hour) per week and for 2 months during 8 weeks (16 sessions). The research instrument was a Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC). Data visual analysis were performed at both within subject and intersubject levels based on three indicators of level, trend and variability. The results showed that the painting therapy, clay therapy and combined method interventions were effective on emotion regulation for children with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder and the effect of this program in the follow-up phase has been Stable.  Based on the findings, it can be concluded that interventions (painting therapy, clay therapy and combined methods) can increase the emotion regulation of children with ADHD. Therefore, these interventions can be considered as the useful and applicational treatments for these children.