Objectives: It is known that children with ADHD have deficit in executive abilities. We have revealed that body-oriented therapy has positive effect on executive abilities in 6-7 years of age children with ADHD (Kiselelev & Parshakova, 2018). The goal of this study was to reveal long-term effect of body-oriented therapy on executive abilities in children with ADHD. We compared the efficacy of two methods of treatment (body-oriented therapy for children vs. conventional motor exercises) in a randomized controlled pilot study.

Methods: 16 children with ADHD at the age of 6-7 years were included and randomly assigned to treatment conditions according to a 2×2 cross-over design. The body-oriented therapy included the exercises from yoga and breathing techniques. We assessed the executive abilities in these children six months after the training. To assess the executive functions and attention we used 3 subtests from NEPSY (Auditory Attention and Response Set, Visual Attention, Statue). Effects of treatment were analyzed by means of an ANOVA for repeated measurements.

Results: The ANOVA has revealed (p<.05) that for all subtests (Auditory Attention and Response Set, Visual Attention, Statue) the body-oriented therapy was superior to the conventional motor training, with effect sizes in the medium-to-high range (0.46-0.84).

Conclusions: The findings from this pilot study suggest that body-oriented therapy has not only immediate but also long-term positive effect on executive abilities in 6-7 years of age children with ADHD. However, it is necessary to do further research into the impact of body-oriented therapies on the prevention and treatment of ADHD in children.