The purpose of this study was to examine the intervention effects of the art therapy on the inattentive and compulsive behaviors of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) in elementary school children. A total 20 students who were screened by ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the intervention effects of the art therapy on the inattentive and compulsive behaviors of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) in elementary school children. A total 20 students who were screened by meeting criteria for both ADHD measures by teachers and students, and DSM-IV observation by teachers participated in this study.
These students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (N=10) and the control group(N=10). The art therapy was implemented for 8 week period. This study focused on the relationships between the teachers' view and the students' view of ADHD. The dependent measures were the inattentive and compulsive behaviors, the persistence time on an art activity, the reaction on task, and the number of errors.
The research hypotheses were as follows:
1-1. The scores of the Inattentive behavior measured by students of the experimental group received the art therapy will be lower than those of the control group.
1-2. The scores of the inattentive behavior measured by teachers of the experimental group received the art therapy will be lower than those of the control group.
2-1. The scores of the compulsive behavior measured by students of the experimental group received the art therapy will be lower than the control group.
2-2. The scores of the compulsive behavior measured by teachers of the experimental group received the art therapy will be lower than those of the control group.
3. In the experimental group, the post-test scores on the inattentive and compulsive behaviors, persistence time, reaction time on task, the number of errors will be differ from those measures of the pre-test.
4. In the experimental group, the post-test scores between the inattentive behavior and the persistence time, and between the reaction time on task and the number of errors will show negative correlations.
The research findings were as follows:
First, within the student instrument, the mean scores on the inattentive and compulsiue behaviors of the experimental group showed lower than those of the control group. Second, within the teacher instrument, the mean scores on the inattentive and compulsive behaviors of the experimental group showed lower than those of the control group. Third, in the experimental group, signifiant negative correlations between inattentive behavior and persistence time, and between reaction time on task and the number of errors were observed. These findings suggested that the art therapy for the inattentive and compulsive behaviors seemed to have significant positive effects on decreasing these compulsive behaviors of ADHD children. The implications of the findings in the art therapy were discussed and suggestions for futher studies were suggested.