The Effectiveness of Abacus Training on Increasing Mathematical Learning and Spatial Intelligence of School Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have a low level in math learning and spatial intelligence compared to their peers, this matter has a lot to do with the subject’s academic and social performance. This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of abacus training on increasing the mathematical learning and spatial intelligence of primary school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The present study is a semi-experimental one with pre-test, post-test and a control group. The statistical population of this research is the students of non-profit schools in district 3 of Yasooj city in 2022. For this paper, 40 subjects consisting of primary school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were randomly selected and divided into two groups experimental and control groups each containing 20 subjects. The experimental group was trained in 12 sessions of 45 minutes, twice a week, and the control group received training after completing the research. The participants were evaluated with the demographic information form, the Iran Kemet math test, and the revised Wechsler cube design test for children (WISC-R) in 2 stages. SPSS version 24 statistical package was used to analyze the data.

The results of covariance analysis showed that the mean score of math scores and spatial intelligence in the experimental group was significant compared to the control group after training the (p<0.001). The highest effect size was respectively related to math scores at 0.91 and spatial intelligence at 0.28.

According to the results of this research, Therefore suggest that educational officials with the aid of experts in this field accomplish this art in primary schools as this training leads to strengthening their mathematical learning and spatial intelligence and better academic and social performance in them.