Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder find it hard to behave, but a study has found that video games can actually help kids with such a condition to have improved behavior.
According to Reuters, the pilot study involved 80 kids aged between eight and 12, and half of these kids had ADHD. After playing the game, kids with ADHD showed improvements in memory and levels of attention. Some parent ratings of symptoms also rose.
The results were presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The game, "Project: EVO," is developed by Akili Interactive Labs in Boston. It is a "prescription-strength" game that aims to act as a daily therapy for disorders like ADHD. According to Medical Daily, the game was made for mobile devices, and the developers are still waiting for the Food and Drug Administration's approval to make it into a game that can be prescribed as therapy.
Project EVO designer Eddie Martucci, co-founder and chief executive of Akili Labs, said that the game can be used to accompany prescribed medications. He added that the game is designed to improve a child's ability to process multiple sets of information, which could potentially help improve problem solving abilities, working memory, and attention.
The game aims to help kids concentrate by putting them in a world where they have to make quick decisions, engaging the brain and blotting out distractions. This allows the child to focus completely on the presented tasks.
Such tasks in the game include, for example, guiding a spacecraft into a canyon. Players must make the right choices, and avoid wrong ones, to make the spacecraft move further into the game. As the game progresses, it detects the player's skill level and gradually adds difficulty as needed.
Akili Labs now said that it would now "move full steam ahead" into a larger, full randomized trial. If the results prove successful, it would support a filing with the FDA.
Earlier in September, ABC 11 reported that a game called "Neuro+" was also made for the same purpose, although this time is uses brain signal, captured using a special headset.
Developed by a 23-year-old Duke University graduate, Neuro+ is an "attention training system for kids and adults with ADHD and other attention issues," said game creator Jake Staunch.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ADHD prevalence in children has increased in the recent decades, and around 9.5 percent of kids in the U.S have been diagnosed with the condition.
Should the games be proven to help, indeed it will be of great help.
