<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><italic>Study aim</italic>: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adopting an external focus of attention on motor learning among girls with ADHD aged seven and eleven years.<italic>Material and methods</italic>: Twenty-four seven-year-old and 24 eleven-year-old female children with symptoms of ADHD were randomly assigned to groups receiving either external focus of attention (EXT) instructions or internal focus of attention (INT) instructions, making four experimental groups: EXT-7, INT-7, EXT-11, and INT-11. Participants performed a pretest followed by five training blocks under an external or internal instruction and were then given a retention test one day later. After training, we employed a manipulation check to verify the children’s type and intensity of focus.<italic>Results</italic>: Adopting an external focus of attention, compared to an internal focus of attention, led to better motor learning among girls with ADHD (<italic>F</italic>1, 44 = 5.08, <italic>p</italic> = 0.029, <italic>η2</italic> = 0.10). In addition, adopting an external focus of attention reduced the children’s tendency to focus on self. Older children performed better than younger children in balance time (<italic>F</italic>1, 44 = 16.10, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, <italic>η2</italic> = 0.26).<italic>Conclusions</italic>: Our results indicate that propositions of the OPTIMAL theory can be extended to children with ADHD.</abstract>

Study aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adopting an external focus of attention on motor learning among girls with ADHD aged seven and eleven years.Material and methods: Twenty-four seven-year-old and 24 eleven-year-old female children with symptoms of ADHD were randomly assigned to groups receiving either external focus of attention (EXT) instructions or internal focus of attention (INT) instructions, making four experimental groups: EXT-7, INT-7, EXT-11, and INT-11. Participants performed a pretest followed by five training blocks under an external or internal instruction and were then given a retention test one day later. After training, we employed a manipulation check to verify the children’s type and intensity of focus.Results: Adopting an external focus of attention, compared to an internal focus of attention, led to better motor learning among girls with ADHD (F1, 44 = 5.08, p = 0.029, η2 = 0.10). In addition, adopting an external focus of attention reduced the children’s tendency to focus on self. Older children performed better than younger children in balance time (F1, 44 = 16.10, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.26).Conclusions: Our results indicate that propositions of the OPTIMAL theory can be extended to children with ADHD.

Effects of external focus of attention on learning static balance among girls with ADHD

Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences

Biomedical Human Kinetics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Study aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adopting an external focus of attention on motor learning among girls with ADHD aged seven...

Effects of external focus of attention on learning static balance among girls with ADHD

Published Online: Mar 13, 2020

Page range: 69 - 74

Received: Dec 16, 2019

Accepted: Feb 15, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2020-0009

Keywords
External focus of attention, ADHD, Motor learning, Static balance

© 2020 Saeed Ghorbani et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Effects of external focus of attention on learning static balance among girls with ADHD

Published Online: Mar 13, 2020

Page range: 69 - 74

Received: Dec 16, 2019

Accepted: Feb 15, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bhk-2020-0009

KeywordsExternal focus of attention, ADHD, Motor learning, Static balance

© 2020 Saeed Ghorbani et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
External focus of attention, ADHD, Motor learning, Static balance