Comparison of the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy with neurofeedback on attention deficit of ADHD elementary students

Subject Areas : Educational

Mehdi Tabrizi ¹ (Counseling Department, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan Branch (Khorasgan), Isfahan, Iran.)
Gholamreza Manshaee ² (Associate professor, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, Isfahan, Iran.)
Amir Ghamarani ³ (Department of Psychology and Education of Children with Special Needs, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.)
Javad Rasti ⁴ (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.)

Received: 2019-06-27 Accepted : 2019-08-25 Published : 2020-05-21

Keywords: Elementary School Students, neurofeedback, ADHD, attention deficit, virtual reality,

Abstract :

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of virtual reality with neurofeedback on attention deficit of students with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder. The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest, control and follow up design. The statistical population consisted of 7-12 years-old elementary school students with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder in Isfahan city in the school year of 1397-98 from which 48 subjects purposely selected based on entrance criteria and randomly assigned into virtual reality, neurofeedback and control groups (each 16 students). The SNAP-4 Parent Form (1981) was completed to measure students' attention deficit by their mothers. The virtual reality experiment group received 10 three-minute sessions of virtual reality software intervention and the neurofeedback experiment group received 30 neurofeedback sessions of 45 minutes each. The control group received no intervention. Then, post-test and after two months, follow-up measure were done. The results showed that virtual reality and neurofeedback are effective in improving attention, their effects are persistent in the follow-up phase, and the difference between the mean of the experimental and the control groups is significant (p <0.001). The obtained results show that virtual reality and neurofeedback are effective in improving the attention of affected students in both stages and the difference between virtual reality and neurofeedback groups is not significant (p <0.05).

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