Program of pinyin game training as an intervention tool in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and reading disorder: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objective To explore the effects of program of pinyin game on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disorder by a randomized controlled trial. Methods Thirty-one cases diagnosed as ADHD according to the criteria of DSM-Ⅳ and comorbid reading disorder were involved in the study. The ADHD and reading disorder children were divided into the intervention group (n=17) and the control group (n=14) by simple random sampling. One of them accepted program of pinyin game training and the other group did not make an intervention. Phonological awareness test, phonetic recognition test and reading ability test were used to evaluate the reading ability of two groups at baseline and the end of week 8, and to make intra-group and inter-group comparisons. Results At baseline, there was no significant difference in reading ability scores between the intervention group and the control group. The scores of the Phoneme deletion (4.9±1.9 vs. 5.9±2.0), Cut pinyin word (37.5(14.0,79.0) vs. 50.0(17.0,99.0)), significantly increased after the intervention by the pinyin game learning software in week 8, but there was no significant difference between the two groups(t=-2.248,P=0.043; Z=3.06, P=0.002). Conclusion The intervention effect of the ADHD comorbidity reading disorder group after 8 weeks of program of pinyin game training was not significantly better than that of the control group, but it may improve the children′s phonetic awareness and pinyin recognition ability. Key words: Attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity; Reading disorder; Program of pinyin game training; Phonological awareness; Pinyin recognition