Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior-based Play Therapy on Anxiety and Self-steem of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Children

The study was carried out to investigate the Effectiveness of based on cognitive behavior-based play therapy on anxiety and self-esteem in children with ADHD. In a semi_experimental design, children admitted to psychiatry center which received psychiatric diagnosis and suffered from compound type ADHD, were interviewed, child symptom inventory (CSI_4) was used too, families and additionally. 24 children were selected and assigned to experimental (12 subjects) and control group (12 subjects). Both experimental and control groups were included 6 boys and 6 girls with the age range 7 to 12. Before, implementing play therapy of approach, coper smith's self-esteem and spence's anxiety tests were administrated as pre_test. Then post_ test was done. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Findings revealed that play therapy, caused significant increase in the self-esteem of children with ADHD, but this therapeutic approach did not lead to significant reduction in anxiety symptom in children with ADHD. It can be noted that play therapy based on cognitive_ behavior approach an effective method to increase the self-esteem in children with ADHD.