Comparison of effectiveness of parent-child communication training with cognitive empowerment on improving the performance of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of parent-child communication training and cognitive empowerment on improving the performance of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The research method was experimental with pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population included all patients referred to the Education Counseling Center of District 2 of Kerman with the age group of 7 to 11 years in 2020 who were diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The number of these children was 275 students (101 girls and 174 boys). After completing the conners' parent rating scale (CPRS) by the parents of these children, 60 children were selected by random sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (20 people in each group). After reducing the subjects, the number of subjects in each group reached 15. The children in the cognitive empowerment group underwent 10 sessions of cognitive trainings and the parents in the parent-child communication group underwent 10 sessions of effective parent-child communication training, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance. The results showed that both methods have an effect on the performance of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but the parent-child communication training method was more effective in improving the performance of these children than the cognitive empowerment method. Therefore, these educational methods can be used to improve the performance of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and it is suggested that both methods be used together.