How does therapist guided game-based intervention program effect motor skills in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?: Single blind randomised study design.
Live therapist chat layered on everyday telehealth games doubles motor-skill gains for kids with ADHD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Barkın et al. (2023) split kids with ADHD into two groups. One group played commercial telehealth games with a therapist on Zoom. The other group played the same games alone.
Kids stayed in their own homes. Therapists gave live tips, praise, and fixes through the screen. After the sessions, the team measured motor skills with a standard test.
What they found
The therapist-guided group gained twice as many motor-skill points as the self-play group. The kids who played alone still improved, but the gap was large and clear.
The result held for both big-body moves and fine-hand tasks.
How this fits with other research
Huang et al. (2021) ran a similar RCT with preschoolers who had ADHD. They used clinic games plus parent training and also saw strong gains. Their work came first; Köse shows the same idea can travel to telehealth and older kids.
Dimitropoulos et al. (2021) tested remote pretend-play in Prader-Willi syndrome. Both studies used home-based screens, but Köse added live therapist coaching and moved the needle much more.
Tsai (2009) used table-tennis at school for kids with DCD. Motor skills improved there too, yet no webcam was needed. The new study proves the boost can happen even when the child and coach are miles apart.
Why it matters
You can fold this into your next telehealth session. Open a free movement game on the tablet, keep your camera on, and give real-time feedback just like you would at the clinic table. The paper says you do not need fancy gear—just your eyes, voice, and a solid internet line. Try it for warm-ups, earn buy-in, and watch motor scores climb while the child still sits at home.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Virtual reality and game-based approaches to the rehabilitation process also brought an opportunity to design more accessible intervention programs.It was seen that many studies utilized trademarked and commercially available games, which were not originally designed as rehabilitation tools but were administrated by a rehabilitation professional to achieve the maximum therapeutic value. AIMS: Study aims to investigate the effects of a Self-oriented game based program(SGBP)and Therapist Guided Game-based Intervention Program(TGGIP) on the motor skills of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: This study was designed as a single-blind, randomized, controlled trial. A total of 176 children with ADHD participated in the study and were randomly divided into two groups (TGGIP and SGBP). Intervention in both groups was done with a telerehabilitation methodology. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: According to the within-group comparisons of pre- and post-intervention BOT2-BF scores, there were significant increases in all sub-scores and the total score(p < 0.05). The comparison of the BOT2-BF all sub-scores and the total score changes between the groups showed significantly higher in TGGIP. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: TGGIP was found to be more effective compared to SGBP in improving motor skills of children with ADHD.TGGIP that we designed acts as a facilitator for therapists in using trademarked and easily accessible games for structured and supervised virtual reality and game-based rehabilitation.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104495