Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) mainly affects the academic performance of children and adolescents. In addition to bringing physical and mental health benefits, physical activity has been used to prevent and improve ADHD comorbidities; however, its effectiveness has not been quantified. In this study, the effect of physical activity on children's attention was measured using a computer game. Intense physical activity was promoted by a relay race, which requires a 5-min run without a rest interval. The proposed physical stimulus was performed with 28 volunteers: 14 with ADHD (GE-EF) and 14 without ADHD symptoms (GC-EF). After 5 min of rest, these volunteers accessed the computer game to accomplish the tasks in the shortest time possible. The computer game was also accessed by another 28 volunteers: 14 with ADHD (GE) and 14 without these symptoms (GC). The response time to solve the tasks that require attention was recorded. The results of the four groups were analyzed using D'Agostino statistical tests of normality, Kruskal-Wallis analyses of variance and post-hoc Dunn tests. The groups of volunteers with ADHD who performed exercise (GE-EF) showed improved performance for the tasks that require attention with a difference of 30.52% compared with the volunteers with ADHD who did not perform the exercise (GE). The (GE-EF) group showed similar performance (2.5% difference) with the volunteers in the (GC) group who have no ADHD symptoms and did not exercise. This study shows that intense exercise can improve the attention of children with ADHD and may help their school performance.
This paper presents a computer game developed to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to recognize facial expressions associated with the four basic emotions: joy, sadness, anger, and surprise. This game named ALTRIRAS is a role-playing game (RPG), a kind of game pointed out by the literature as the most suitable for these children for being more social than competitive. It has recreational settings built with 2D graphic interface to keep the children’s attention and an access control and a register mechanism to allow the monitoring of the child’s progress. The data collection of the functional, nonfunctional, psychological, and educational requirements, as well as the evaluation of its consistency and usability, was made by a multidisciplinary team consisting of five experts in each of the following expertises: pedagogy, psychology, psychopedagogy, and game development. The effectiveness test of the game was performed by 10 children with ASD and 28 children with neurotypical development, which were separated into control and experimental groups, respectively. All experts and children with neurotypical development answered the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire after playing the game. The results were positive, between experts and volunteers regarding their acceptance. However, the time of exposure to the game in children with ASD should be increased to effective assistance in the recognition of facial expressions.
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