The purpose of this study was to examine whether social skills training would have an effect on lowering the impulsiveness of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and promoting their self- control. The research questions were posed a...
The purpose of this study was to examine whether social skills training would have an effect on lowering the impulsiveness of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and promoting their self- control. The research questions were posed as below:
First, are there any differences in impulsiveness between the ADHD children of the experimental group that takes social skills training and those of the control group that doesn't?
Second, are there any differences in self-control between the ADHD children of the experimental group that takes social skills training and those of the control group that doesn't?
To address the research questions, the following hypotheses were established, based on the literature concerned and earlier studies:
Hypothesis 1. The experimental group that takes social skills training would become less impulsive than the control group that doesn't.
Hypothesis 2. The experimental group that takes social skills training would have better self-control than the control group that doesn't.
The subjects in this study were the third and fourth graders from S elementary school in the city of Daegu. Among them, the children who had ever been exposed to cognitive behavioral therapy or drug therapy were ruled out. After those who were found to lack attention and be impulsive by their homeroom teachers were selected, they were tested with Conners simplified scale for teacher, a behavioral assessment scale widely used for ADHD child identification, to select the final subjects.
The finally selected children were randomly divided into a 10-member experimental group and a 10-member control group. The social skills training was carried out for six weeks, and SPSS/PCˇ+ program and t-test were utilized for data analysis. Besides, a qualitative analysis was added, by asking the experimental group children and their parents to give their feedback and by observing the behavioral change of the children.
The brief findings of this study could be described as below:
First, the social skills training was effective for easing the impulsive- ness of the ADHD children(t=3.706, p<.01).
Second, the social skills training was effective for developing the self- control of the ADHD children(t=4.554, p<.001).
Based on the above-mentioned findings, the following conclusion was reached:
First, the social skills training has an effect on relieving the impul- siveness of ADHD elementary schoolers. That training serves to help ADHD children who originally behave or speak without thinking control their own impulsive behavior, and to reduce their behavior of teasing classmates, making a big noise, giving impulsive and unreasonable answer, or failing to concentrating on task performance.
Second, the social skills training has an effect on developing the self- control of ADHD elementary schoolers. The behavioral characteristics of ADHD children is gradually said to be attributed to the lack of self- control, and poor self-control is known to lead to immediate reaction, distraction sensitive to even slightest stimuli, poor achievement and negative self-concept. A variety of social skills training, such as modelling or role playing, are useful for the change or modification of negative behavioral characteristics.