A Clinical Study of Treatment with Scalp Acupuncture for Learning Disorders

AbstractObjectives :The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of treatmen t with scalp acupunctures for children with learning disorders.Methods :For this study, we evaluated Korea standard progressive matrice s test (K-SPM) on 24 children with learning disorders who visited Korean medical center neuropsychiatry outpatient cl inic from July 2012 to January 2013. Scalp acupuncture, cognitive enhancement therapy and speech-language therapy were applied. All children were treated 2 times a week for 4 months and we compared K-SPM test scores before treatment and 30 times after the treatment.Results :1) After the treatment, K-SPM test scores have increased significantly (p＜0.05) and the number of children in grade 5 (＜5%) have decreased from 14 to 6. 2) Comparing K-SPM test scores between two groups: one with medical history and the other without medical history, the scores in both group s have increased significantly (p＜0.05). 3) We also divided the children into two groups according to age: under th e age of 13 and over the age of 13, and compared K-SPM test scores. Although the scores in both groups have incr eased respectively, it is the scores of the former group (under the age of 13) that have increased significantly (p ＜0.05).Conclusions :The treatments with scalp acupunctures were shown to be an effe ctive intervention when improving K-SPM test scores of children with learning disorders.Key Words:Scalp acupuncture, Learning disorders, Raven progressive matric es test, K-SPM.