Imitation in the treatment of the hyperkinetic behavior syndrome

Abstract

Recent research effort has been devoted to the treatment of the hyperkinetic behavior syndrome, with most accounts favoring one of two separate approaches to this disorder: 1) behavioral intervention directed, toward symptom modification, or 2) psychostimulant medication directed toward symptom control. In contrast to these symptom‐focused therapies, the present investigation directs treatment attention to the information‐processing capacities of hyperactive children. Hyperactive subjects and normal controls (matched for sex and age) were compared on four behavioral and cognitive measures that have been used to clinically differentiate these two groups. The data empirically substantiated inferior performance for hyperactive subjects when task instructions were presented primarily through auditory channels. However, differences between the two groups were no longer apparent when auditorily presented task instructions were complemented with specific, visually presented information. Imitation procedures appear to be an important compensatory vehicle in ameliorating certain deficits related to this syndrome. Incorporation of these procedures may be a valuable component in the therapeutic and educational programming of the hyperactive child.