Applying Somatosensory Interactive Technology To Assess Children With Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:a Preliminary Study

Assessment is a prerequisite for the diagnosis and treatment of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorde(ADHD). The primary assessment tools used in ADHD include scales and neuropsychological tests. Most rating scales and checklists usually are inderected assessment, which impossibly avoid subjective bias. And neuropsychological tests are confined to laboratory, children’s behavior and performance in natural settings cannot be observed. Therefore, new technologies are urgently needed in ADHD assessment. Somatosensory interactive technology is a new human-computer interaction technology with which users can interact with the interface by their body. Somatosensory interactive technology can create varied assessment and training environments featured with nature and safety, and it has been widely applied to medical rehabilitation and educational fields. But the researches on the application of somatosensory interactive technology in ADHD assessment and training are just beginning.In this study, combining somatosensory interactive technology and GO/NO-GO Task, researchers designed an somatosensory GO/NO-GO Task assessment tool, and used the somatosensory ADHD assessment, ADHD rating scales and ADHD executive function tests to assess 45 children with ADHD and 40 typically developing children. The result shows that:1) In somatosensory GO/NO-GO Task assessment, omission errors rate(OER), comission errors rate(CER) and standard deviation of response time(SDRT) of Children with ADHD are significantly higher than typically developing children(p<0.05).2) The omission errors rate(OER), comission errors rate(CER) and standard deviation of response time of Children with ADHD are significantly correlated with traditional executive function tests results(p<0.05), and there exists no significant correlation with ADHD rating scale’s results (p>0.05).(3) Taking clinical diagnosis as standard, OER’s sensitivity and specificity are respectively 85.4% and 70%; CER’s sensitivity and specificity are respectively 60% and 92.5%; SDRT’s sensitivity and specificity are respectively 77.8% and 77.5%; the coincidence rates of the three indexes are all over 75%.(4) Typically developing children’s pre-test scores and post-test scores shows a significant positive correlation in the somatosensory GO/NO-GO task, the correlation coefficient from 0.31 to 0.64.(5) The effect of inter-stimulus interval (ISI) on two groups’evaluation index scores is inconsistent in the somatosensory GO/NO-GO task.(6) Users’satisfaction towards somatosensory GO/NO-GO task is higher. After a series of discussions, researchers drawn a preliminary conclusion:Somatosensory interactive technology can apply to the assessment of children with ADHD, its validity and reliability is higher, its sensitivity and specificity is ideal, and its user satisfaction is better. OER can be used as a screening or diagnostic index for the assessment of children with ADHD, CER can be used as a excluded insex and SDRT can be used as a additional index. Somatosensory interactive technology will have a broad development in the assessment and intervention for children with ADHD and other children with special needs.