An Emotional Bias Modification for Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Co-design Study

Area of Science:

• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Child psychiatry
• Cognitive and emotional bias assessment

Background:

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder.
• Children with ADHD often experience emotional regulation difficulties.
• The visual probe task assesses emotional biases but is repetitive and demanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather healthcare professionals' views on the limitations of the visual probe task.
• To explore the feasibility of integrating gamification into emotional bias modification tasks for ADHD.

Main Methods:

• A co-design workshop was conducted virtually with healthcare professionals.
• Participants identified limitations of the visual probe task and suggested improvements.
• Existing gamified interventions for ADHD were reviewed and discussed.

Main Results:

• Limitations of the conventional emotional bias intervention were identified, including task parameters and stimulus sets.
• Concerns were raised about the evidence base of existing ADHD games; targeted skill sets must be clear.
• Healthcare professionals favored economic and performance-based gamification strategies.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare professionals' perspectives on refining emotional bias interventions for ADHD were collected.
• Gamification techniques are proposed to improve task adherence and reduce attrition rates in children with ADHD.