Gamified Education for Students with Executive Function Disorders: A Systematic Literature Review

Executive function disorders (EFDs) greatly hinder students’ capacity to organize, concentrate, and control their behavior, creating difficulties in conventional learning environments. Gamified education has emerged as a promising approach to engage these students by integrating game design elements into learning environments, yet a comprehensive synthesis of its efficacy remains underexplored. This systematic literature review investigates the convergence of gamification and EFDs with the objective of uncovering patterns, appraising methodological soundness, and measuring the effects of gamified approaches in varied educational settings. We analyze existing studies through a multi-dimensional framework encompassing gamification in general education, neurodevelopmental disorders, executive function training, subject-specific applications, and intelligent tutoring systems. The review indicates gamified approaches frequently boost motivation and task continuation in students with EFDs, yet results differ depending on design principles and personal variations. Although certain research indicates notable improvements in cognitive and behavioral outcomes, additional studies emphasize constraints in scalability or sustained retention over time. The results indicate that personalized gamification, matched to particular executive function impairments, often produces more reliable advantages. Nevertheless, deficiencies remain in uniform evaluation procedures and long-term data. This review synthesizes theoretical and practical insights and presents recommendations for future research to improve gamified solutions and address gaps between experimental designs and classroom applications in real-world settings. The synthesis underscores the potential of gamification as a supportive tool while calling for more rigorous, inclusive studies to optimize its application for students with EFDs.