White Noise

White Noise and ADHD

The article I chose to read was “ EFFECTS OF WHITE NOISE ON OFF-TASK BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC RESPONDING FOR CHILDREN WITH ADHD” which was conducted by Cook, Andrew, Bradley-Johnson, Sharon and Johnson, C Merle. The purpose of the study was to see if white noise will help improve academic performance and decrease attention problems in kids with ADHD. Prior research “ has shown that white noise can reduce crying in infants and young children, in addition it also improved the sleep of hospital patients.” (p. 164) Also, prior research has found that “children with ADHD performed a task with higher accuracy when white noise is present.”(p. 164)

The participants were three male Caucasian students, their ages range from eight to nine years old. All three male students were “diagnosed by a physician with ADHD” (p.160) and where taking medication. The settings took place in a rural school which the participants attended. “The sessions were done in the same classroom while they worked on independent assignments.”

The interobserver data were collected and they had an overall agreement of 93% the mean item by item was 98%.The dependent variable In the study was Off-task behavior. They measured off task behavior by having thirty minute sessions 2 to 3 days per week. There were three types of off task behavior; Talking to other students or to the teacher that is unrelated to the assignment, standing or walking while not attending the task or looking away from the assignment. The researcher used 15 second momentary time. At the end of each interval, the observer recorded the form of the off task behavior occurring in that second. For every half an hour segment a response product in the form of a completed worksheet was mad...

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For future research the article suggests

Evaluating white noise for individuals with ADHD who are not on medication, by examining the relative efficacy of different magnitudes of white noise, and by comparing the relative efficacy of white noise across qualitatively different tasks (for example, those that are academically challenging vs. Those that are less challenging).

In conclusion, prior research has shown that white noise can be helpful. In this case it showed that it helped kids with ADHD to stay on task. However, there was not a systematic effect on performance.

Works Cited

Cook, A., Bradley-Johnson, S., & Johnson, C. M. (2014). EFFECTS OF WHITE NOISE ON OFF-TASK BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC RESPONDING FOR CHILDREN WITH ADHD. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47(1), 160-4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1517530307?accountid=10358