More than child’s play: the potential benefits of play-based interventions for young children with ADHD

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 More than child’s play: the potential benefits of play-based interventions for young children with ADHD

By: Nina Giancola December 31st, 2020

With 'play-based interventions' children learn to express their feelings and learn better strategies in order to manage their disability and improve their developmental functions. Engaging in play serves a critical role in children's social and cognitive development. Since ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder, it causes slower brain development. Engaging in direct play could serve a potential role in advancing these children's development as well as serve a role in improving ADHD's long-term issues. Instead of playing with a therapist, treatment for children with ADHD should facilitate neural and social development through play with parents, siblings, and peers. Programs of play have been developed for these children that target skills such as inhibitory control, working memory, and motor coordination. The way children play the games in these programs should be specific to Vygotsky's sociocultural theory which proposes that children are better able to learn complex mental tasks by interacting with more knowledgeable peers and adults which guide the learning tasks that children cannot do on their own. This teaching technique is called ‘scaffolding’  and is shown to help a child’s skill level improve, and improve their social and cognitive skills. Improvement in skills such as compromise, turn-taking, and perspective-taking are especially important for children with ADHD to develop to avoid any long-term difficulties. By creating this intervention, parents can enjoy more positive interactions with their children directed in fun games, which could shift the dynamic between parent and child. In addition, games provide opportunities for parents to set clear rules, place limits around the child's behavior, and bond with their children. The intervention should be practiced frequently in order to see long-term results and reinforce play so that children are enabled to transfer their skills to different settings. Evidence has shown that this intervention play therapy has improved preschooler’s neuropsychological functioning and reduced the severity of preschoolers' inattention and impulsive behavior. Although the integration of this approach is still to be explored, there are high hopes that this treatment can help children with ADHD in their development.


O'Neill, S., Rajendran, K., & Halperin, J. M. (2014, January 9). More than child's play: The potential benefits of play-based interventions for young children with ADHD. UConn Database. Retrieved December 31, 2020, from https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.lib.uconn.edu/doi/full/10.1586/ern.12.106



Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 3, 2021 at 8:32 PM

    I really like how your summary included specific ways in which play could help children with ADHD, and how you explained how both ADHD and play function neurologically. I also like how you referenced Vygotsky's theories as we previously discussed his methods.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KayvonaJanuary 4, 2021 at 7:05 AM

    I love how you deeply explain the various way for ADHD kids can interact with people other than their therapists. It gives them a sense of normalcy, which it good for building social development skills with people other than family. I love how you pull out evidence from Vygostsky's theories

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2021 at 7:10 AM

    I really like how this article discussed the benefits to children with ADHD. I feel like ADHD is not normally discussed in topics like this, so I thought it was very informative.

    ReplyDelete

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