Computerized Eye-tracking Attention Training for Children With Special Needs

NCT ID: NCT04178421

Last Updated: 2019-11-26

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 96 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-09-01
• Study Completion Date: 2019-09-10

Brief Summary

Children with special needs (e.g. autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) are found to have sustained attention problems. Several behavioral interventions have been carried out in the past to improve this situation. However, these interventions are often involved a high administration cost. Recently, researchers have been focusing on training the eye gaze fixation using the eye-tracking training games, as some of the research studies reported a correlation between atypical eye gaze patterns with poor sustained attention. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a computerized eye-tracking attention training. Two batches of 48 primary school students will be recruited from email and the subject pool of the Department of Psychology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Participants are dividedly randomly and equally into either intervention or control group. Participants in both groups will undergo pre- and post-assessments measuring the executive function and attention before and after the intervention, respectively. However, there will be eight eye-tracking training sessions for the intervention group, but only the assessments are received in the control group. It is hypothesized that after the training, the performance of the training games and assessments will improve, indicated by increasing accuracy rates, as well as the reaction time of the tasks. The results would provide important information on the value of computerized eye gaze training and would guide the direction of interventions that target on improving the sustained attention and impulse control of children with special needs.

Conditions

ADHD; ASD; Learning Disorders

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Experimental Group

A computerized eye -tracking program training the eye gaze fixation with the target to improve impulse control and sustained attention of children with special needs

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Computerized training program

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eye-gaze fixation computer based training program

Control Group

Computerized program

Group Type: PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

Placebo

Intervention Type: OTHER

Pac-Man, Zookeeper, Tetris

Interventions

Computerized training program

Eye-gaze fixation computer based training program

Intervention Type: OTHER

Placebo

Pac-Man, Zookeeper, Tetris

Intervention Type: OTHER

Other Intervention Names

Computerized program

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• a total of 96 primary school children (aged between 6 to 12 years) with special needs, defined by psychological disorders such as ASD, ADHD, ADD, and Dyslexia

Exclusion Criteria

• Children with mental retardation will be excluded

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 12 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Chinese University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Professor Chan Sui-yin Agnes

Professor Chan Sui-yin Agnes

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Hong Kong, , Hong Kong

Countries

Hong Kong

Other Identifiers

2018-0298

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id