Effect of social-comparative feedback and the focus of attention on the performance of targeting skills in children with ADHD

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 3-7% of children.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of deductive-social feedback and attention instructions on the performance of targeting skills in children with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.

This research is a semi-experimental type. Its statistical population was formed by male students suffering from attention/ hyperactivity disorder in Isfahan city with an age range of 7-10 years in 2020. 48 right-handed students were randomly selected as a statistical sample based on the results of the Connors children's behavior rating scale and randomly divided into four groups of 12 people. In order to collect data Personal Information Questionnaire, Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, Ulrich's Gross Motor Development Test, Anderson's Over Shoulder Throw Scale (1999) and Luciana et al. (2012) Over Shoulder Throw Targeting Task were used. Data were analysis with using one-way ANOVA test and Bonferroni's post-hoc test using SPSS-18 software.

The results showed that the studied groups had significant differences in the qualitative and quantitative development of hand targeting skills (P<0.05). The results of Bonferroni post hoc test showed that the positive analogical-social feedback group had better and significant external attention than the other groups (P<0.05), the other groups did not differ significantly in the retention stage (P>0.05).

The results showed that the comparative-social positive-external attention group performed better, so it is suggested to use this method in teaching and learning goal-setting skills.