PND30 Breathing Training HAS Positive Effect on Attention in Children with ADHD

Abstract

It is known that children with ADHD have deficit in executive abilities and attention. We have revealed that body-oriented training has positive effect on executive abilities in 6-7 years age children with ADHD (Kiselev & Parshakova, 2018). The goal of this study was to reveal the effect of breathing training on attention in 6-7 years of age children with ADHD. We compared the efficacy of two methods of treatment (breathing training for children vs. conventional motor exercises) in a randomized controlled pilot study. 14 children with ADHD between 6 and 7 years of age were included and randomly assigned to training conditions according to a 2×2 cross-over design. The training included breathing exercises from yoga. Both groups of children have participated in 12 weeks of training (breathing training vs. conventional motor exercises). A total of 36 training sessions lasting 30 minutes were performed. We used 3 subtests from NEPSY (Auditory Attention and Response Set, Visual Attention, Statue) to assess attention in children. Effects of training were analyzed by means of an ANOVA for repeated measurements. The ANOVA has revealed (p<.05) that for all used subtests (Auditory Attention and Response Set, Visual Attention, Statue) the breathing training was superior to the conventional motor training, with effect sizes in the medium-to-high range (0.51-0.89). The findings from this pilot study suggest that breathing training has a positive effect on attention in 6-7 years age children with ADHD. However, it is necessary to do further research into the impact of breathing training on ADHD children.