Abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine the additive effect of elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the video game Mindlight in decreasing anxiety of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A non-concurrent multiple baseline design with 8 children with ASD in the age of 8–12 was used. CBT did not have the hypothesized additive effect on Mindlight in decreasing anxiety of children with ASD. Instead, multiple participants already experienced a decrease in anxiety during the Mindlight sessions. Yet, several participants did experience a stabilization in anxiety at a low level during the CBT sessions. For now, it can be concluded that CBT does not have an additive effect on Mindlight.
Highlights
Video games have the potential to enhance mental health and well-being in children and adolescents (Granic et al 2014; Ferguson and Olson 2013)
This study showed that Mindlight was more effective than a control game in decreasing parent-rated anxiety symptoms
This is in line with outcomes in the study of McNally Keehn et al (2013), who found an overall decrease in child- and parent-rated anxiety symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program (‘Coping Cat’), but a specific increase in anxiety between post-intervention and 2-months follow-up
Summary
Video games have the potential to enhance mental health and well-being in children and adolescents (Granic et al 2014; Ferguson and Olson 2013). A more recent randomized controlled trial (RCT; Wijnhoven et al 2020) tested whether Mindlight was effective in decreasing anxiety symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a clinical setting. Despite the effective and suitable treatment elements in Mindlight, it is still unclear how to design therapy sessions in clinical practice in order to maximize the effect of the game intervention on anxiety symptoms of children with ASD. One of the reasons for this, is that the nature of anxiety symptoms and, in turn, the treatment needs of children with ASD can vary to a great extent (Kerns et al 2016) Another explanation for this increase might be that children with ASD do not automatically know how to use the coping skills they learned during the game in scary situations they encounter in daily life. This indicated that children who played Mindlight need to practice the skills they learned in multiple daily life situations (e.g., at school and during social activities) in order to generalize the learned coping skills and to maintain long-lasting effects
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