Learning Programme for ADHD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development and feasibility of a learning programme for children referred for ADHD.
IRAS ID
264897
Contact name
Sinead Rhodes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Children with ADHD often show difficulties in the use of strategic thinking functions making it difficult to plan out, initiate, and successfully complete tasks and this is linked to difficulties in academic learning. Our project will develop a training programme comprising an intervention focused on facilitating the child to become aware of their strengths and difficulties and their effect on learning, tooling them with skills they can apply to aid their learning and everyday tasks requiring insight, planning and organisation. The first part involves the development of the intervention, assessing strategies to help planning skills, memory maintenance, and self-regulation developed through interviews with children and their teachers. In the second phase, 60 children will be entered into either ‘Intervention’, ‘No Intervention and Pre-Medication’ or ‘Medication Only’ conditions based on their place on the waiting list. They will complete cognitive e.g. (memory) and educational tasks (e.g. reading) at this point before entering the intervention phase and then will be assessed again on these tasks after an 8 week period to compare against baseline measures. Participation will not impact medication start for any child with such a waiting-list timed design. We will trial the use of a variety of techniques within the class room context within the programme. This will include for example use of mental strategies such as mental interactive imagery and 'chunking' and external strategies such as mind maps, visual prompts and mini white-boards. We will assess the feasibility of including teachers to facilitate support for the child’s engagement with the programme.
REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NE/0267
Date of REC Opinion
9 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion