A replication of extended implementation and social interaction during the Step it <scp>UP</scp>! Game for adults with disabilities

The team ran the Step it UP! Game for the adults with mixed disabilities.

Each day the adults wore a pedometer. Staff split them into two teams. The team with the most steps won a small prize drawing.

Sessions lasted longer than in the first study. Later the staff added friendly small-talk to see if extra social time would help.

Every adult walked more steps during the game days. Longer sessions kept the gains going.

Adding staff chat did not raise step counts. The game alone did the work.

May et al. (2020) used a lottery to push three adults into high-intensity heart-rate zones. Seward et al. now show the same lottery idea boosts plain daily steps. Together they tell us: prize drawings can lift many kinds of exercise in adults with DD.

Walmsley et al. (2013) mixed a lottery with brief feedback to improve hand-washing. Seward kept the lottery but dropped the feedback and still saw gains. This hints that, for exercise, the prize may be enough—extra feedback might be overkill.

Mikolajczyk et al. (2015) lengthened balance training and saw better balance. Seward lengthened the step game and also kept gains high. Both say: extending the session can lock in the skill.

You can run Step it UP! for longer blocks without burning staff time on chit-chat. Keep the team contest and daily draw; skip the extra social breaks. If you already use lottery boards for other skills, reuse the same setup to add healthy movement.