Integrated Brain, Body and Social Intervention for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The investigators are conducting this randomized trial to determine if IBBS (Integrated Brain, Body, and Social)intervention is an effective treatment for ADHD (attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in two culturally distinct settings; Hamden and New Haven, Connecticut and Beijing, China. A subgroup of the children in the US will also participate in an EEG study before and after IBBS and will be compared to a group of typically developing children. IBBS combines computer-presented brain exercises with a physical education curriculum, all of which is designed to be fun, as well as to enhance sustained attention, inhibitory control and other executive capacities. IBBS is a school-based program in which groups children (composed of children with ADHD, children at risk for ADHD, and typically developing children) alternate between a classroom setting and the gymnasium four days a week for 15 weeks. These mixed age groups will be composed of children with ADHD, children at-risk for ADHD, and typically developing children. Although IBBS takes place in a group setting, the computer game component individualizes instruction to maximize benefit for each child. During the last year of the grant, we will be introducing a pilot study of an organizational skills training (OST) that will provide individualized parent and child training for improved executive functioning in children randomized to the OST plus home-based program.