Authors: Shin-Siung Jung, Simon Jung.
Objective: In Taiwan, many parents of children with attention-Deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are hesitant about choosing pharmaceutical treatment. As a non-pharmaceutical alternative, we explored the effects of 3 months of Sensory-Motor Integration Training (SMI-Tx) in elementary school students with ADHD.
Method: We compared scores on the ADHD Test (ADHDT), the Sensory-Motor Integration (SMI) checklist, the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (TONI-2), and the Teacher Rating Scale (TRS) in 94 students with ADHD before and after 3 months of SMI-Tx.
Results: With the exception of students suffering from cold/influenza and neuritis pain, we found that SMI-Tx improved ADHD symptoms in all 94 students. School teachers’ ratings indicated that ADHD symptoms improved by 79%. Higher frequency of SMI-Tx sessions was associated with greater improvement in ADHD symptoms.
Conclusion: SMI-Tx represents an effective non-pharmaceutical treatment for students with ADHD. However, further studies with larger cohorts and a double-blind crossover design are needed.
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