Effects of therapy balls on children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

Therapy balls are air‐filled rubber balls ranging from 20 to 30 in. in diameter that are sometimes used in place of traditional 4‐legged chairs in classrooms. Unfortunately, research on the effects of therapy balls as chairs is limited. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of therapy balls on the on‐task behavior and academic performance of elementary students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. An alternating treatments design was implemented with 4 students from the 3rd and 4th grades comparing therapy ball seating to traditional classroom chairs. No effect of the therapy balls was found, although students preferred sitting on the therapy balls. Teachers reported that the therapy balls were difficult to use and did not find them particularly effective.

To Fidget or Not to Fidget, That Is the Question: A Systematic Classroom Evaluation of Fidget Spinners Among Young Children With ADHD

“…Providing a “therapy” tool to a child with ADHD requires the child to not view that tool as a reward. It is apparent that children with ADHD see a fun object that spins on your hands as a fun toy rather than something to help them “focus.” Our finding is also consistent with past work showing the lack of effect for other occupational tools such as therapy balls for children with ADHD (Taipalus, Hixson, Kanouse, Wyse, & Fursa, 2017).…”

A Visual Aid and Objective Rule Encompassing the Data Features of Visual Analysis

“…For Student 1 (upper panel of Figure 2, obtained via https://manolov.shinyapps.io/TrendMAD), the proposal helps ignore the one potentially outlying value. This visual indicates that one of the conditions (the “ball” condition in Taipalus et al, 2017) is clearly superior to the chair condition with 100% of the values of the ball condition outside the variability band constructed on the values of the chair condition. For Student 2 (lower panel of Figure 2), the proposal suggests that only 25% of the intervention phase data points represent an improvement in the “ball” condition, whereas 75% represent a deterioration.…”

“…Illustrating an ATD, Figure 2 represents the data from Taipalus, Hixson, Kanouse, Wyse and Fursa (2017) for Students 1 and 2. For Student 1 (upper panel of Figure 2, obtained via https://manolov.shinyapps.io/TrendMAD), the proposal helps ignore the one potentially outlying value.…”

“…Application of the proposal to a comparison phase of an alternating treatments design; data gathered by Taipalus et al (2017) for Student 1.…”