Social Virtual-reality on Enhancing Social Interaction Skills in Children With Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Virtual Reality, Social Interaction, Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
About this trial
This is an interventional health services research trial for Virtual Reality focused on measuring Virtual reality, Social interaction, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Three-arm pilot randomised controlled trial
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria: aged between 6 and 12 years ethnic Chinese residing in Hong Kong having received a diagnosis of ADHD by Child Assessment Service in Hong Kong or via private practice stable on pharmacological and/or psychological treatment for ADHD 8 weeks before baseline (determined by health care professionals on the basis of medication data and behavioural observation) no initiation or change of pharmacological treatment for ADHD during the intervention period the ability to read Chinese, and speak and listen to Cantonese by the child and by at least one of their parents or legal guardian willing to provide informed consent by both participants and one of their parents or legal guardian Exclusion Criteria: comorbid autism mental retardation an estimated IQ lower than 85 (using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (Hong Kong) (WISC-IV(HK))) autism spectrum disorder (previously diagnosed by health care professionals) comorbid acute psychiatric disorder (previously diagnosed by health care professionals) with a severe physical disability (e.g., blindness, deafness) or learning disability (e.g., dyslexia).
Sites / Locations
- Ka Po WONGRecruiting
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Arm 3
Experimental
Active Comparator
No Intervention
Social VR Intervention
Traditional social skills training
Waitlist control group
Social VR intervention is developed to enhance the social interaction skills of children. The participants will wear a head-mounted display for the Social VR intervention. Each session of the Social VR intervention lasts for a maximum of 20 minutes to ensure the participants focus on the intervention and prevent causing any physical effect. The duration will be adjusted depending on the emotion of the participants during the intervention. The Social VR intervention will mainly help the participant to enhance their social interaction skills and executive function. The intervention contains three real-life virtual scenarios, including (1) classroom and playground, (2) MTR station and compartment, and (3) supermarket and restaurant. One scenario will be adopted in each session. The sequences of the scenarios used in each session will be the same for all participants.
An experienced SEN teacher will teach the participants social interaction skills through tradidactic instructions and role-play activities. Four modules will be covered in the 3-week training: (1) how to introduce yourself and basic social skills; (2) how to listen to others; (3) how to share with others; (4) learn to know how people feel and how to empathise. These modules have been applied in many studies (Braswell & Bloomquist, 1991; Huang et al., 2015). The content of this training will be as similar as possible to the Social VR training. The training lasts 20 minutes which depends on the emotion of the participants.
The participants in this group will receive no training and they can participate in the social VR training after the intervention period. To ensure the consistency of the experiment, the participants are not allowed to initiate or change their pharmacological treatment during the 3-week intervention period.