Effectiveness of play therapy on the bases of cognitive behavior approach on severity of symptoms of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among primary school male students aged 9-11

ADHD is considered as the most prevalent disorder during childhood and adolescence. For the purposes of diagnosis and treatment various methods including play therapy one applied. This research has been conducted with the aim of studying the effectiveness of  play therapy on severity of  symptoms of Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among primary school male students aged 9-11.

By considering a experimental design two psychological and counseling clinics in Isfahan were selected. From the population of all clients in the two clinics who were diagnosed as ADHD-C by the psychiatrists, 30 were selected randomly and assigned into the experimental and control groups (15 subjects each). At the pre- and post - test stages, before and after 8 sessions which took 30-45 minutes every two days play therapy with emphasis on increasing attention and decreasing hyperactivity, CSI-4 and MFFT questionnaires were applied to both groups. Furthermore, in order to diagnose any change after the therapy, a follow-up study was conducted after a month. The data were analyzed by SPSS14 software, using ANCOVA.

The play therapy decreased the amount of ADHD, hyperactivity, attention deficit, and response errors symptoms significantly, but increased response time significantly (all at p

Considering the significant differences between the experimental and control groups as well as the fallow - up, play therapy may  be applied as an effective method of treatment for children and adolescence with ADHD preferably, a combination of this and other relevant methods may be used for the treatment of those with ADHD. As the ADHD symptoms were decreased significantly after the intervention, the effect of play therapy was confirmed.