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Key points
- Just because your child can focus on video games doesn't mean they don't have ADHD, but it might suggest they'd benefit from neurotechnologies.
- It is important to use technologies that meet the needs of your child—one size does not fit all.
- While more fun than many treatments for ADHD, video game–based neurotechnologies still require effort and real-world connections.
Parents who are skeptical about their child displaying the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often point out how easily they can sustain their attention to video games. “My child can't possibly have ADHD—they can spend hours playing Minecraft or Roblox.” This observation has fueled the development of a stream of brain-training programs and “neurotechnologies” that use screen-based technology, video gameplay, and virtual reality for the treatment of ADHD to keep kids engaged with their treatment. Neurotechnologies are best defined as technologies developed to understand the brain, visualize its processes, and even control, repair, or improve its functions.
There are many novel neurotechnologies designed to help kids with ADHD and associated disabilities. These come in a variety of delivery methods, targeting an assortment of behaviors and narrow components of neurodevelopmental disorders. What they have in common is that they are new, still widely unknown, and viewed with a degree of mistrust by many clinicians. And while I am a vocal supporter of the potential benefits of using emerging technologies, there are also many reasons why technology alone won’t necessarily help or “cure” your child with ADHD.
New Technologies to Help With ADHD
There is great excitement about the potential of new technologies to help kids with ADHD. Some of these tools are popular technologies such as apps that help with relaxation and emotional regulation or video games that promote problem-solving. Many innovative neurotechnologies have been designed to improve executive functions, working memory, slow processing, and attention skills. Some of the buzz derives from flashy new technologies, but more often it is due to the engaging, personalized, and adaptively challenging nature of the new tools.
Unfortunately, in the past, some of the excitement was also a result of technologies that were overhyped and oversold. Critics continue to credit these neurotechnologies with improving “game-trained”—but not necessarily broader—real-world skills. For example, memory trainers help you to remember more things in the training program and similar game-like tasks. You might even remember a bit more in similar neuropsychological tests of memory that are often administered as proof of the efficacy. But, skeptics argue that these new memory skills show little improvement when applied to broader skills. These criticisms have some merit. We still have a long way to go before these neurotechnologies work as a standard intervention for kids and adults with ADHD. It is best to view current brain-training technologies as in their developmental and experimental phase. However, the advances made just in the past few years have been remarkable.
Many of the newer and more promising neurotechnologies are steeped in science and go beyond the treatment of ADHD. Some companies such as Akili have obtained US Food and Drug Administration approval as a treatment, and others such as Revibe and Calmsie are seeking it as well. Other companies such as Mightier and Posit Science have conducted extensive research that explores how their technologies impact real-world health.
However, before you jump on the neurotechnology bandwagon with both feet, consider that the main reason that technology won’t help your kid with ADHD is often due to the misapplication of these tools. Just like a hammer is the wrong tool for inserting a screw into a wall, it is important to identify the skills and brain functions that need improvement and then find the best technology to help. I want to describe some of the reasons that technology won’t help your kid with ADHD, but then demonstrate three ways it can be made helpful.
3 Reasons That Technology May Not Help Your Kid With ADHD
- Generalization of skills from one setting to another is challenging. The goal of generalization or far transfer (the ability to use a skill learned in one setting in a different setting, with other people, and with different materials) is very difficult and does not readily occur in most other learning environments. For example, in a classroom or via psychotherapy, practice alone is often not enough to know how and when to apply a skill.
- Improving a skill requires sustained effort. The motivations and focus engendered for the current neurotechnologies are assumed to be strong because they happen using a screen. Many of the older programs, however, are not fun or engaging enough to sustain the necessary practice time required to improve a skill.
- Treating ADHD is only part of the challenge. For many kids, treating ADHD may miss the more important issues. For example, a child with a learning disability that causes their school-based issues or a teenager who displays concentration problems as a result of underlying anxiety may not be helped very much by a neurotechnology targeting executive functioning.
3 Ways to Make Technology More Helpful for Your Kid With ADHD
- Choose carefully. Find a program that fixes a problem and addresses a weakness. For example, if following directions is a struggle, determine if your child needs to put more energy into paying attention or recalling what they have heard. Based on this observation, choose a tool that helps either with auditory processing or with memory.
- Make sure it is fun. If you want your child to put in the necessary practice time to improve their skills, it cannot be boring. It’s not good enough just because it's delivered on a screen or has some game-like features. Think about what your child is already doing on screens—perhaps playing Minecraft or watching YouTube videos. These screen-based technologies fully capture your child's focus and energy. There are some newer neurotechnologies that understand the commercial competition and provide nearly the same level of engagement.
- Broaden the training. Work on recognizing and practicing related skills, as real-world applications will not always be the same. Think of it in the same way you’d approach learning an athletic skill. For example, when learning to hit a forehand in tennis, an instructor will help you repeat a basic stroke for days and then began to try it with different paces, heights, speeds, and spins. This slightly varied practice helps to apply the training to an actual game of tennis. This same principle of expanding training to similar but broader skills can be applied with technologies.
There is great promise in emerging neurotechnologies designed to help kids with ADHD. While many are in developmental stages, rigorous research is being conducted to refine their effectiveness. The newest tools address varying symptoms of ADHD, so parents and child-care professionals will want to learn about how and when to use them with each unique child.
