The effectiveness of neurofeedback in reducing attention deficit and aggression in children aged 7-9 years

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder and aggression are two of the most common challenges in children, so it is important to assess effective treatment approaches in this case.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurofeedback could help children aged 7-9 years pay more attention and be less aggressive.

The method of this research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. In the winter of 2020, among children aged 7-9 years were referred to the Behnoud Child and Adolescent Psychology Clinic in Qazvin for therapeutic therapies, 30 children as a research sample with a definite diagnosis of the disorder were randomly assigned to two categories using a convenience sampling method. The experimental group received neurofeedback therapy twice a week for 2.5 months (20 sessions in total). Children aggression questionnaire (Shahim, 2016) and parent form of Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (Connors& etal, 1999) were used to collect data. To analyze the data, the method of analysis of covariance with spss-26 software was used.

The results of analysis of covariance revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of attention deficit (P<0.01) and aggression (P<0.01) (overt and relational aggression) in the post-test stage after controlling the pre-test scores. That is, neurofeedback therapy has increased attention and reduced aggression (overt and relational) in children aged 7-9 years.

Due to the importance of the findings, the effectiveness of neurofeedback in mitigating attention deficit and aggression may be generalized to all children aged 7-9 years and its use in health centers is suggested to the clinicians.