Effectiveness of the cool-down game in reducing emotional and behavioral problems of hyperactive children

• Main Authors: Ezzat Hajimohammadi, Mostafa Najafi, Mozhgan Arefi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2018-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Educational and Psychological Researches
• Subjects: Behavioral problems; cool-down game; emotional problems; hyperactive children
• Online Access: http://www.ijeprjournal.org/article.asp?issn=2395-2296;year=2018;volume=4;issue=1;spage=52;epage=58;aulast=Hajimohammadi

AIM: The goal of this study is to overview the effectiveness of cool-down game and the reduction of emotional and behavioral problems. The population of the study include 7–13-year-old kids living in Isfahan. Methods: The research method was experimental with pretest, posttest, and control group. Forty-four children of 7–13 years old were selected through simple random sampling method from the clients who had referred to the psychiatrists' clinics and were diagnosed of having hyperactivity disorder/attention deficit by the super specialist of child and adolescent psychiatrist, and they were randomly divided into two groups of control and experiment, each with 22 individuals. The experiment group was under sixteen 60 min training sessions by the help of cool-down game. The research tool was the Persian questionnaire of the strengths and difficulties (parent and teacher form) that all participants complete it as pretest and posttest. The data were analyzed by covariance analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that from the parent's and the teacher's point of view, the cool-down game has been effective in significant decrease of emotional and behavioral problems. CONCLUSION: Therefore, this method can be used to reduce emotional and behavioral problems of hyperactive children.