Cognitive rehabilitation in students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neuropsychological disorder in childhood. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on integrated visual-auditory (IVA) attention.

 This study was an experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The population included children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Karaj. The research sample was selected by the convenience-purposive sampling method. Participants included 34 male primary school students with ADHD referred to psychiatric clinics in Karaj. These participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The groups were assessed by the IVA test in pretest and posttest. The experimental group received 12 sessions of cognitive rehabilitation with a researcher-developed protocol. Data were analyzed in SPSS-22 software by analysis of covariance method.

 The results of covariance analysis indicated that the cognitive rehabilitation method was effective (p <0.05) in improving IVA attention in primary school students with ADHD.

 Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that cognitive rehabilitation is an effective method for reducing integrated visual-auditory attention of primary school students with ADHD.