Comparison of the Effect of Cognitive Rehabilitation and Neurofeedback on Sustained Attention Among Elementary School Students with Specific Learning Disorder: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Specific learning disorder (SLD) can occur along with the problems of attention performance and be complicated by them. Recent studies have reported the positive effects of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) and neurofeedback (NFB) on sustained attention (SA) in SLD. Nevertheless, it has not yet been determinedwhat kind of treatment may be the most appropriate option for this disorder in terms of the different functions of cognitive status, especially SA. This preliminary study aimed to compare CR and NFB effects on SA among elementary school students with SLD using a randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT). Fifty- three eligible students with a DSM-5 SLD diagnosis, aged 7-10, were randomly allocated in NFB (n=18), CR (n=18), and control groups (n=17). All the participants were evaluated for SA by performing the continuous performance test (CPT) on the studied groups at the time of their inclusion in the study and 7 weeks after it. The intervention groups took part in 20 sessions of CR and 20 sessions of NFB. Conversely, the untreated group were evaluated without any intervention.15 boys and 30 girls in 3 groups completed the study (n=15 per group). The mean and standard deviation of participants' age were (8.66 +/- 1.48) years, (8.40 +/- 1.73) years and (8.53 +/- 1.63) years in CR, NFB and untreated groups, respectively. The results showed significant differences between the groups based on the variables of the CPT test (p<0.05). Also, the significant effects of the variables represented the higher scores of the CR compared to the NFB group (p<0.001). This study provides einitial evidence that CR is more effective than NFB on SA improvement among students with SLD.