Effectiveness of Play Therapy on the Reduction of Children's Severity Symptoms with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Promotion of Their Academic Performance

Play is one method for treating children's problems because children are often facing problem in oral expression of their feelings. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of play therapy on the reduction of children’s severity symp-tomms with Attention Deficit/Hyp-eractivity Disorder (ADHD) and prom-otion of their academic performance. The research method is group randomized contr-olled experiment. For this purpose, 45 ADHD children (7-11 years old boys and girls) who had referred to the Imam Hossein Clinic in the year 2013 were selected through convenience sampling method. They were randomly assigned into three groups of expe-rimental, control, and placebo (15 pa-rticipants in each group). Data was collected in two stages of pre-test and post-test. The severity of ADHD symptoms assessed by Conner's Rating Scale (Teachers and Parents Form) and their academic performance were ev-aluated using their course grade. The data were analyzed by one-way AN-OVA. Results showed that play therapy increased children's academic performance in Koran, theology, m-athematics, and physical education while the impact was not significant on Persian language, Science, Discipline, and general performance. Discussion & Play thera-py can be used as an effective method in reducing severity of ADHD’s sym-ptoms and improvement of their acad-emic performance besides other th-erapeutic methods.