Physical Activity Interventions for Children with Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Disabilities—A Systematic Review

Abstract

Although additional research is warranted to further understand the mechanisms by which PA affects behavioral and cognitive outcome measures in children with SEBDs, PA offers a safe and alternative form of treatment for this population.

Physical Activity and Adhd: Evidence on Developmental Trajectories, Transient and Durable Neurocognitive Effects, and Real-World Applications

“…Hence, preliminary evidence suggests that when PA groups are compared to active comparison groups, group x time effect sizes on symptom severity are small or near-zero, but when they are compared to no-intervention control groups they are often moderate-large. This hypothesis is also supported by the broad array of PA program formats demonstrating promise, traditional physical education games (Bustamante et al, 2016), distance running (Wendt, 2000), video games (Benzing & Schmidt, 2017), table tennis (Pan et al, 2016), mechanical horseback riding (Pan et al, 2017), swimming (Verret, Guay, Berthiaume, Gardiner, & Béliveau, 2012), sports therapy , yoga (Chou & Huang, 2017), and interactive cycling (Bowling et al, 2017), among others. If it is the case that the features of PA programs that are most important to improving behavior of children with ADHD are those associated with the environments in which the PA is taking place, this may reasonably be interpreted as a rationale for intentionally tailoring these factors to optimize impact.…”

“…This area of research has rightfully received disproportionate attention, as the capacity for interventions to alter neurodevelopmental trajectories in ADHD is of paramount interest. To date, over two dozen studies have tested impacts of multi-week PA interventions for children with ADHD, and since 2015, a host of systematic reviews have been published investigating the influence of multi-week interventions on cognitive and behavioral outcomes among children with ADHD [e.g., (Ash, Bowling, Davison, & Garcia, 2017;Cerrillo-Urbina et al, 2015;Den Heijer et al, 2017;Neudecker, Mewes, Reimers, & Woll, 2015;Ng, Ho, Chan, Yong, & Yeo, 2017;Song, Lauseng, Lee, Nordstrom, & Katch, 2016;Suarez-Manzano, Ruiz-Ariza, De La Torre-Cruz, & Martinez-Lopez, 2018)]; as well as a few meta-analytic studies [e.g., (Tan, Pooley, & Speelman, 2016;Vysniauske, Verburgh, Oosterlaan, & Molendijk, 2016)]. Across reviews, authors have concluded that benefits of moderate-intensity aerobic PA programs are evident in the domains of symptom severity, executive function, and physical health measures.…”

“…Moreover, engagement with PA programs is associated with greater improvements in benefits derived on these outcomes. For example, a secondary analysis of a 7-week cyber cycling trial for children with ADHD (N=103) and other behavior disorders found that for every 11-minutes of cyber cycling, children had an associated decline of 11-minutes of time in detention (Bowling et al, 2017). Group x time analyses reinforce these findings, as intervention studies have consistently found significant differences between groups in brain function (Choi, Han, Kang, Jung, & Renshaw, 2015), neuropsychological tasks of EF (Kang, Choi, Kang, & Han, 2011), and symptom severity (Hoza et al, 2015).…”

Actividad física y TDAH: evidencia sobre el desarrollo, efectos neurocognitivos a corto y largo plazo y sus aplicaciones

“…Esta área de investigación verdaderamente ha recibido atención de forma desproporcionada debido al interés extremo en la capacidad de estas intervenciones de alterar las trayectorias neurológicas del desarrollo en personas con TDAH. Hasta la fecha, más de dos docenas de estudios han evaluado el efecto de intervenciones de AF durante varias semanas en niños o niñas con TDAH y desde el 2015 se han publicado múltiples revisiones de literatura sobre la influencia de las intervenciones de AF de varias semanas en la respuesta cognitiva y conductual en niños o niñas con TDAH [e.g., (Ash, Bowling, Davison, & Garcia, 2017;Cerrillo-Urbina et al, 2015;Den Heijer et al, 2017;Neudecker, Mewes, Reimers, & Woll, 2015;Ng, Ho, Chan, Yong, & Yeo, 2017;Song, Lauseng, Lee, Nordstrom, & Katch, 2016;Suarez-Manzano, Ruiz-Ariza, De La Torre-Cruz, & Martinez-Lopez, 2018)]. Similarmente, varios meta análisis han sido publicados sobre la misma pregunta de investigación [e.g., (Tan, Pooley, & Speelman, 2016;Vysniauske, Verburgh, Oosterlaan, & Molendijk, 2016)].…”

“…Más aun, una mayor participación en un programa de AF está asociada con mayores beneficios derivados de estos resultados. Por ejemplo, un análisis secundario con datos de niños y niñas con TDAH y otros trastornos de conducta (N = 103), que duró 7 semanas en las cuales participaron de ciclismo virtual, reveló que por cada 11 minutos que los niños o niñas participaban del ciclismo virtual se observó una disminución de 11 minutos en el periodo de castigo después de la escuela (Bowling et al, 2017). Los análisis de grupo X tiempo refuerzan estos hallazgos, ya que los estudios de intervenciones han reportado diferencias significativas entre los grupos en la función cerebral (Choi, Han, Kang, Jung, & Renshaw, 2015), el FE EF (Kang, Choi, Kang, & Han, 2011) y la severidad de los síntomas del TDAH (Hoza et al, 2015).…”