Effectiveness of time-related interventions in children with ADHD aged 9–15 years: a randomized controlled study

Abstract

Specific problems with time and timing that affect daily routines, homework, school work, and social relations have been recognized in children with ADHD. The primary treatments for children with ADHD do not specifically focus on time-related difficulties. The aim of this randomized controlled study (RCT) was to investigate how multimodal interventions, consisting of training in time-processing ability (TPA) and compensation with time-assistive devices (TAD), affect TPA and daily time management (DTM) in children with ADHD and time difficulties, compared with only educational intervention. Thirty-eight children on stable medication for ADHD in the 9–15-year age range were randomly allocated to an intervention or a control group. The children’s TPA was measured with a structured assessment (KaTid), and the children’s DTM was rated by a parent questionnaire (Time-Parent scale) and by children’s self-reporting (Time-Self-rating). The intervention consisted of time-skill training and compensation with TAD. Data were analysed for differences in TPA and in DTM between the control and intervention groups in the 24-week follow-up. Children in the intervention group increased their TPA significantly (p = 0.019) more compared to the control group. The largest increase was in orientation to time. In addition, the parents in the intervention group rated their children’s DTM as significantly (p = 0.01) improved compared with the parents in the control group. According to the children, their DTM was not significantly changed. In conclusion, a multimodal intervention consisting of time-skill training and TAD improved TPA and DTM in children with ADHD aged 9–15 years.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00787-017-1052-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Daily time management and autonomy in school-age children with ADHD, intellectual disabilities, and typically developing children show different patterns

“…These results indicate that children with ADHD may have both deficits in cognitive functioning regarding TPA and problems in daily activities related to time. This is in line with experimental studies showing deficits in time perception (23)(24)(25), temporal foresight (25) and timebased prospective memory tasks (27), together with intervention studies showing problems in organising and planning school activities (28,52), daily activities at home (42), and overall adaptive functioning (29) among children with ADHD.…”

“…The Time-Parent scale has been validated and tested for internal consistency in children and adolescents with and without disabilities with Cronbach Alphas of 0.79-0.86. It has been found to be psychometrically sound and significantly correlated with TPA as measured by KaTid (2, 7) and can measure change (42).…”

“…Data collection was conducted with the child and the parent separately (see 42 for more details). KaTid-Child and KaTid-Youth have been shown to have good validity and reliability with children and adolescents, with and without disabilities, in measuring the same construct and in measuring change (36,42). KaTid-Child has been validated and tested for internal consistency in children with and without disabilities, with Cronbach Alphas of 0.78-0.86 (2,7).…”

Intervention in time‐processing ability, daily time management and autonomy in children with intellectual disabilities aged 10–17 years – A cluster randomised trial

“…A version for children aged 5–10 years was found to be psychometrically sound, measuring one construct (person separation index = 6.24, reliability = 0.97), (internal consistency α = 0.79–0.86) (Janeslätt et al ., ). This version of the Time‐Parent scale for children aged 10–17 years was presented in a previous study (Persson et al ., ) and can be used to measure change (Wennberg et al ., ). It is also expected that children with IDs can manage some daily situations equivalent with their chronological age because of their developing adaptive skills.…”

“…Some evidence indicates that the remediation of organisational skills and time management is effective in school‐aged children with ADHD (Abikoff et al ., ; Langberg, Epstein & Graham, ; Wennberg, Janeslätt, Kjellberg & Gustafsson, ). Still, no studies investigating interventions, including remediation in TPA or daily time management in children with IDs, are available.…”