Playing video games can help combat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, suggests a study presented at the Digital Games Research Association conference, Canada. ADHD is a mental disorder in which children lack attention and become impulsive and hyperactive.

In the study, the researchers led by Tammy McGra, executive director of Intelligen, an organisation associated with education research and development, looked at 62 sixth-grade students who had been suffering from ADHD. The kids had trouble with reading.

The researchers grouped the children into two. The first group was advocated Dance Dance Revolution, an interactive video game, while the second was provided with no such intervention. The game, according to the researchers, has the potential to judge the participants’ attention and skill of reading. For three months the children had to attend two video game sessions of about half-an-hour duration.

When the researchers evaluated the kids, they found that those who played the game scored at least two points each in a test. Those that didn’t play couldn’t manage to score even a single point.

The game improved the skill of receptive coding ? an ability to code the written words in the kids’ brain. Furthermore, they had improved their reading skills.

“By matching movements to visual and rhythmic auditory cues, the game might have strengthened neural networks [in the brain], which is involved in reading and attention,” the researchers surmised.

3 conditions that make children hyperactive

1: Obesity: Childhood obesity has been linked to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Researchers in Israel think that hyperactivity may result in overeating in children. They recommend that all obese children be screened for hyperactivity disorder.

2: Snoring: Snoring may be associated with ADHD, suggests a study in Sleep. Researchers looked at 229 children between six and 17, and noted that people with ADHD were more likely to have suffered from snoring in early life. The researchers say that breathing troubles during sleep can give rise to the disorder in children.

3: Diabetes: Childhood psychiatric disorders, including ADHD, can be linked to diabetes, according to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who reported their study in the journal Pediatric Diabetes.