Effects of Yoga on Attention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity in Preschool-Aged Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms.
Samantha C L Cohen, Danielle J Harvey, Rebecca H Shields and 6 others
PMID 29538185WHAT IT FOUND
Yoga did not improve symptoms for the group overall or for teachers.
It helped inattention on parent ratings only in children with high baseline scores. Computer tests showed faster reactions but also more impulsive errors. Heart rate variability did not change.
Key findings
01The study was underpowered, recruiting 23 children instead of the target 60, limiting the ability to detect small treatment effects.
02Yoga significantly improved parent-rated inattention and hyperactivity-inattention only in children who had high symptom scores at the start; the group as a whole did not show significant improvement on these measures.
03On computerized attention tasks, the yoga group showed faster reaction times and fewer omission errors, but also significantly more commission errors, indicating a mix of improved attention and increased impulsivity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was significantly underpowered, recruiting only 23 children instead of the calculated target of 60, which increases the risk of both false negatives and exaggerated subgroup effects. Baseline data for the computerized attention tasks (KiTAP) were insufficient for many children, preventing the use of baseline scores as covariates in those analyses. The location of school yoga changed between groups (separate room for Group 1, classroom for Group 2), introducing a potential confound in how the intervention was delivered. Changes in teachers completing rating scales during the study may have affected the consistency of teacher-reported outcomes. The study lacked an active control group, so improvements cannot be definitively separated from the effects of extra attention or routine. No parents continued home practice after the intervention period, limiting conclusions about long-term maintenance of effects.
Declared interests
None declared by any of the authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the significant improvements in high-baseline subgroups as evidence that yoga works for all children with ADHD symptoms. These findings come from a small, underpowered pilot and were not seen in the overall group or in teacher ratings. Additionally, the objective attention data showed faster reactions but more impulsive errors, meaning 'improvement' is not straightforward.