The Effect of Sensory Diet on the Impulsivity of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of a family-centered sensory diet program on the impulsivity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study population included all children with ADHD aged 6-12 years in Tehran, Iran referred to the clinics of Hasti, Bahar, and Masir-e Sabz in 2020. Of these, 30 children were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control. The intervention group underwent 12 sessions of a family-centered sensory diet program, 3 days a week, each for 45 minutes based on the Wilbarger protocol. The used tools were the Wechsler intelligence scale for children-Fourth Edition to test intellectual ability and the Conners’ parent rating scale to diagnose ADHD in children. Independent t test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used in SPSS software v. 20 for data analysis.

In this study, the mean age of participants was 9.56±4.38 years, including 11 girls (36.6%) and 19 boys (63.3%), and the mean age of mothers of these children was 34.23±6.9. The mean impulsivity scores of children in the intervention group decreased and the results of the ANCOVA showed a statistically significant difference in the mean posttest scores between the two groups (P=0.001).

The family-centered sensory diet program has a positive effect on the impulsivity of children with ADHD. It is recommended that therapists use the sensory diet program as a complementary therapy along with other therapeutic interventions.