Effects of a colored wall and a colored board on performances of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) face many challenges throughout their educational lives. This study aims to find out whether there is a board and wall color combination that will help focus their attention in classroom environments. Therefore four experimental settings were prepared in which children with ADHD had to solve specially prepared tests on their most troublesome subjects. Results of one-way repeated measures ANOVAs showed that children with ADHD made significantly less errors in rooms where the board and wall colors were different than each other, in Coding and Matching tests. In the Pair Cancellation test participants performed significantly faster in the room in which both the board and the wall were painted red, compared to the room with white board and white walls. Although there is no significant difference between experimental settings in the reading task, it is observed that the participants with ADHD corrected their mistakes more in rooms with wall and board colors different than each other. As a result, painting the wall behind the board a different color than the board is recommended to help children with ADHD focus their attention more easily in classroom environments. With the findings of the current study it is believed that the use of color in different objects and environments in different educational activities can contribute positively to the learning abilities and mental states of children, young and adults with ADHD.