Eighteen‐month follow‐up of a play‐based intervention to improve the social play skills of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract

The intervention demonstrated preliminary and long-term efficacy in developing the social play skills of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Further research is required to optimise intervention feasibility and parent involvement prior to conducting a large-scale research.

Parents’ perceptions of the long‐term appropriateness of a psychosocial intervention for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…The acceptance of their child's differences and an appreciation of their strengths were facilitated through modelling and coaching by the therapist. This was mirrored in previous studies of the play‐based intervention, as parents’ described a new approach and the recognition of their child's strengths as identified by the therapist (Cantrill et al ., ; Wilkes‐Gillan et al ., ). As the social difficulties experienced by children with ADHD are pervasive and long‐lasting, it is important that parents are able to recognise improvements in their child in order to continue with intervention strategies in the long term.…”

“…The presence of the following components of intervention aimed to encourage the development of parent skills and the continuation of strategies outside of intervention to enhance the appropriateness of the intervention in the long term: (i) play as an enjoyable context of intervention with the involvement of a regular playmate; (ii) a parent training component that aims to counterbalance parent time and effort required and strategies that can be implemented into everyday family routines; (iii) consultations with a therapist to maintain collaborative and supportive relationship; and (iv) parent resources to use at home such as a manual, play cards and a DVD to watch with their child. In previous long-term qualitative studies (Cantrill, Wilkes-Gillan, Bundy, Cordier & Wilson, 2015;Wilkes-Gillan, Bundy, Cordier & Lincoln, 2014), parents have reported their child's increased social skills evident at school and home as well as enhanced parenting skills to support their child. Further, parents reported they continued to use strategies from the intervention supporting the long-term appropriateness of intervention.…”

“…The model recognises the need for resources in order to manage stressors and minimise their impact; allowing the family as a unit to manage (McCubbin & Patterson;Weber, 2011). In previous qualitative studies, the play-based intervention was shown to reduce parental stress by providing parenting tools and resources to cope (Cantrill et al, 2015;Wilkes-Gillan et al, 2014).…”

Capturing everyday experiences of typically developing children aged five to seven years: A feasibility study of experience sampling methodology

“…However, little is known of the relationship between psycho-emotional and contextual factors affecting children's participation in daily occupations. This is an important consideration given that transference of newly developed social skills from therapeutic settings to other contexts is widely reported as a weakness of many psycho-social interventions for children with developmental disabilities (Mikami, Jia & Na, 2014;Radley, Jenson, Clark & O'Neill, 2014;Strain, Schwartz & Bovey, 2008;Wilkes-Gillan, Bundy, Cordier & Lincoln, 2014). To develop effective, client-centred and ecologically valid interventions to improve the quality of life of young children, there is a need to understand how their perceptions of daily life and quality of social experiences are influenced by everyday contexts (Chen, Cordier & Brown, 2015).…”

Evaluating the pragmatic language skills of children with ADHD and typically developing playmates following a pilot parent‐delivered play‐based intervention

“…Having a close friendship has been found to mitigate the negative consequences of rejection from a larger peer group (Parker & Asher). Further research is therefore needed to determine if this type of play‐based intervention can enhance a close friendship in the long term (Hoza et al ., ; Wilkes‐Gillan, Bundy, Cordier & Lincoln, ). Other measures beyond pragmatic language and play skills would be needed in order to answer this question.…”