None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of the 10-week play-based intervention is to improve the social and communication skills of children with ADHD. We aim to do this by using: the context of play, parents, children's typically-developing playmates and therapist supported clinic sessions. We suspect, that both children with ADHD and their playmates will demonstrate significant improvements in their social and communication skills following the intervention and that these skills will also be observed in the home environment. We suspect parents may also find the intervention a supportive approach that assists them to develop their child's social and communication skills which are needed for friendships.
Interventions
Children will receive a 10-week play-based intervention called 'The Ultimate Guide to Making Friends'. After attending a baseline assessment, children and their invited typically-developing playmate will attend the intervention which involves 6 weekly clinic sessions led by an occupational therapist (weeks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10). All clinic sessions will last 1 hour and involve a video-feedback discussion and clinic play session with the therapist. The child and their playmate will first view video
Children will receive a 10-week play-based intervention called 'The Ultimate Guide to Making Friends'. After attending a baseline assessment, children and their invited typically-developing playmate will attend the intervention which involves 6 weekly clinic sessions led by an occupational therapist (weeks: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10). All clinic sessions will last 1 hour and involve a video-feedback discussion and clinic play session with the therapist. The child and their playmate will first view video footage of themselves playing from the previous week. The footage will have explicit short clips of footage where the children played well together and where they were not engaged in cooperative play. Children will be helped by the therapist to discuss the footage and brain storm three 'green skills' while they play in the playroom together (e.g., share toys, play my friend's game, talk to fix problems). The therapist and children then went into the playroom where the therapist modelled desired social skills while playing with the children and facilitated cooperative play between them. During weeks 4, 6, 8 & 9 children with ADHD will complete home activity facilitated by their parents which includes a DVD and manual resource and weekly play-date with the playmate they invited to the study. Parents will first read the prescribed manual chapter - each containing information about a social skill (e.g., perspective-taking) (15 minutes) before watching the correlating DVD episode involving fictional characters with their child (30 minutes). The DVD will cue parents when to pause the episode and have a discussion with their child about what they just watched. The DVD was designed to give children ideas about play with friends and how to repair social interactions when a problem occurred. During the week parents also invited the playmate from the study over for a 40 minute play-date. Before the playmate arrived parents where encouraged to talk with their child and come up with three things to remember while they played with their friend (based on what they watched from the DVD episode). Parent-reported treatment adherence was recorded by therapists on a weekly basis across the following categories: clinic sessions, DVD and manual activity and play-date. A post-test measurement will be taken in the week 10 clinic session. A 1 hour follow-up will then be conducted at the home of children with ADHD one month after the intervention. This involves a video-taped session of the child and their playmate playing in the home environment and a semi-structured interview completed by parents.
Sponsors
The University of Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
5 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Children with ADHD: had to have a formal diagnosis of ADHD (made by a paediatrician or psychiatrist using recognised diagnostic procedures e.g. DSM-IV). Children continued prescribed medication for ADHD. Parents were asked not to change their child's medication during the study. One parent/primary caregiver also needed to available to participate in the intervention delivery. Typically-Developing Playmates: did not have a diagnosis of ADHD and no concerns were raised by parents or teachers about the children’s development. The Conners Comprehensive Behavior Rating Scales (CCBRS; Conners, 2008) was used as a screening measure to confirm the presence or absence of ADHD symptoms. Children with ADHD needed to score above the clinical cut off (T-Score >70) and playmates needed to score below the borderline clinical cut off (T-score <65).
Exclusion criteria
The study commenced at the time of the DSM-IV. Children with ADHD were excluded if they were diagnosed with other major neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders (e.g. intellectual disability)as well as ADHD. Playmates were excluded if they scored above the clinical cut off on the CCBRS.
Outcome results
None listed