The effectiveness of an educational board game on the symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in children with ADHD

This study designed an educational board game and investigated its effectiveness on the symptoms of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. The population included 40 children aged seven to nine years in Baharestan County, Tehran Province in 2023 and selected by purposeful sampling and divided into two experimental and control groups randomly. The educational game was employed for 10 sessions in the experimental group. The instruments included the SNAP-IV questionnaire and diagnostic interview. Data was analyzed using repeated measures variance test in SPSS 23 software. The results showed that the educational board game had a significant effect on reducing children's hyperactivity symptoms and there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Also, these effects remained stable in the follow-up phase.​​​​​​​​​ According to the findings, it can be generally concluded that game therapy, including physical games and cognitive games such as educational board games, can be used alongside first-line treatments as a complement or as an independent intervention for these children.