Reaction performance improvement in children with adhd through adapted physical activity – a pilot study

Abstract

Background: This study investigates the efficacy of an adapted physical activity program on reaction performance in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods: Study participants consist of 37 children with ADHD aged 8-11 years old, were divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention consisted of a 60-minute adapted physical exercise program occurring two times per week for eight weeks. This intervention program, which combined both aerobic and perceptual-motor exercise characteristics, was designed with a diverse set of exercise games. Two tests of joystick were employed: a simple reaction time test (SRT), and a four-choice reaction time test (CRT). Results: Our results showed that whole group (pretest: 808±243 ms; posttest: 714±197 ms, p<0.05), boys (pretest: 764±277 ms; posttest: 685±228 ms, p<0.05), and girls (pretest: 918±56 ms; posttest: 788±51 ms, p<0.05) had reduced CRT in the intervention group but not in the control group, and there was no significant change in the variability of SRT and CRT in all groups. Conclusion: Our study found that the adapted physical exercise used in this study influenced the performance of a sensory-de-pendent cognitive task of children with ADHD. This confirms that exercise can be a useful intervention tool for these children, especially those who are looking to improve these aspects of their executive functions and complicated sensorimotor ability.