Evaluation of computer game therapy for children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder

Game therapy was considered as one of the effective methods in treating children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, it should not be overlooked that games can have negative and even destructive effects due to poor design. This research performed two studies about computer game therapy for children with ADHD. In the first study, we reviewed the effective parameters in researches related to game therapy. The results showed that computer games have been used well for treatment and some effective factors have also been reported. However, the practical evaluation of the performance of these games has received less attention; especially from the perspective of Human-Computer Interaction. In the second study, we investigated the usability of three well-known games through a user study in an educational and therapeutic setting. The survey results show that users rated these games as effective, but the game design failed to achieve high user satisfaction.