Working Memory and Social-emotional Training for Preschoolers at Risk of ADHD
Condition: ADHD; Time Perception Altered; Working Memory; Social Skills
MeSH terms: Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The study aims to explore the effectiveness of working memory training and social emotional
      training for young children with ADHD in Hong Kong. This study will contribute to the current
      understanding of the alternative treatments for ADHD, and hopefully help to mobilize more
      resources to be dedicated to the support of children with ADHD. The programme includes the
      following components:

      Children participating in this study will be randomly allocated into experimental group -
      recieving working memory training, active control group - receiving social-emotional
      training, and waitlist control group. All participants will complete a 5-week online training
      using a digital device at home, three times a week, each training session lasts for about 15
      minutes.

      Moreover, children's cognitive abilities and academic performance will be assessed prior to
      the intervention, and immediately after the 5-week training. Each assessment session lasts
      for about 45 minutes. Parents will also be asked to fill out a questionnaire on children's
      behaviours at home and school prior to and after the 5-week program. It takes about no more
      than 10 minutes. All assessments will be conducted at the laboratory at the University of
      Hong Kong.

      Children's working memory, time perception, ADHD symptoms, and early academic performance
      will be measured before and after training, and the between-group performance will be
      compared to examine the training effects.
    


Intervention name(s): Game-like online working memory training; Game-like online social emotional training
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Participants in the WM group will be receiving two types of WM training tasks (two mini-games) in each session. Half of the training time will be spent on playing a game that requires visual-spatial WM, and the other half of the training time will be spent on playing a game that demands verbal WM. In both the games, the participant is asked to remember the pictures or audios (numbers) presented, and then recall them and select them on the screen.; Participants in the SE group will be also receiving two types of SE training tasks in each session, to match with the ones in the WM training. There are two mini-games for training.
To match with the spatial-visual WM training, participants in the SE group will be asked to first look at a picture that depicts a daily social scenario (i.e., a child who fell down and hurt himself), and then to choose an emotion that the child in the picture may feel from four options of facial emotions displayed on the screen. The other mini-game, with the aim to match with the auditory WM training, will first tell a short story of a social scenario (i.e. "David accidentally fell down and got hurt), and then will ask the child to choose the emotion that the character in the story may feel from the four options displayed on the screen. Each mini game lasts for about 7 minutes in each training session.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Intervention group: receive 5 weeks working memory online training, three times per week, each lasts 15 minutes.
Active control group: receive 5 weeks social-emotional online training, three times per week, each lasts 15 minutes.
Control group: no training
Masking: Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: preschool; ADHD; working memory