Impact of Attention & Fine Motor Coordination Training on Functional Impairments of Children with ADHD-IA

Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) have a wide range of neuropsychological deficits including attention, memory, and executive functioning. These children also face numerous associated problems such as poor self esteem. The study was targeted to remediate attention and fine motor incoordination of children with ADHD-Inattentive type (IA) and to see its impact on other functional impairments. A total of 20 primary school children fulfilling the criteria of ADHD-IA type were selected from different schools in Mysuru, India. Neuropsychological deficits were assessed using NIMHANS Neuropsychological Battery for Children & Fine Motor Checklist. Functional impairments were assessed using Brief Impairment Scale. Children in the experimental group were given attention and fine motor training for 3 months. A post test was conducted after 3 months training. The results of the study reveal that children with ADHD-IA have number of neuropsychological deficits. These children also have functional impairments in academics. Marginal difficulty is seen in their interpersonal issues. However, they have no impairment in self subscale. The results also reveal that attention fine motor training was effective in improving focused and selective attention, working memory, new learning ability, visual fluency and fine motor training Incoordination of children with ADHD-IA. Further it was found that attention and fine motor coordination bring changes in other functional impairments of children with ADHD-IA such as academics. It can be concluded that a neuropsychological rehabilitation is effective in remediating functional impairments faced by children with ADHD-IA.