The effects of motor and cognitive training on ADHD students in the physical education environment

The study was designed to determine the effectiveness of a multimodal remedial intervention aimed at developing fundamental motor skills among the population of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) children. ADHD (N = 24) and non-disordered (N = 24) children in grades 2 through 5 were assigned randomly to either the 10-week experimental multimodal motor skills program or a control condition (10 weeks of regular physical education classes). Students in each treatment group were measured pretreatment and posttreatment using the Fundamental Motor Skills Performance Test (Holland, 1986). Analysis of covariance indicated that both ADHD and non-disordered students in the experimental condition made significant gains in fundamental motor skills, relative to their control group counterparts. These findings suggest that the intervention is effective with both ADHD and non-disordered students. The results were discussed in terms of the desirability of including training in fundamental motor skills in the physical education curricula of ADHD and other students