The effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation program (go-go and hungry donkey) on reaction speed and cognitive-behavioral inhibition system of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the cognitive rehabilitation program (GO-NO GO and hungry donkey) on reaction speed and cognitive-behavioral inhibition system of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The population consisted of all children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who were referred to counseling centers in Tehran in the academic year 1402-1401, from which 30 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were selected as samples by purposive sampling. They were randomly assigned to the experimental group (15) and the control group (15). The instruments included Captain Log's cognitive rehabilitation software (Captain's Log, Sandford & Brown, 1988) Wechsler Children Intelligence Scale (WISC, Wechsler, 2003), and  Go/No Go Task (Hoffman, 1984). The experimental group received 11 sessions (one session per week for 60 minutes) of cognitive rehabilitation training. Data were analyzed through multivariate covariance statistical tests. The results showed that by controlling the effect of the pre-test, there is a significant difference between the post-test of the experimental and control groups in reaction speed and cognitive-behavioral inhibition of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (P<0.05). Based on the results, one could say rehabilitation programs have led to the improvement of the reaction speed and cognitive inhibition system of students.