GOLIAH (Gaming Open Library for Intervention in Autism at Home): a 6-month single blind matched controlled exploratory study

BackgroundTo meet the required hours of intensive intervention for treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we developed an automated serious gaming platform (11 games) to deliver intervention at home (GOLIAH) by mapping the imitation and joint attention (JA) subset of age-adapted stimuli from the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention. Here, we report the results of a 6-month matched controlled exploratory study.MethodsFrom two specialized clinics, we included 14 children (age range 5–8 years) with ASD and 10 controls matched for gender, age, sites, and treatment as usual (TAU). Participants from the experimental group received in addition to TAU four 30-min sessions with GOLIAH per week at home and one at hospital for 6 months. Statistics were performed using Linear Mixed Models.ResultsChildren and parents participated in 40% of the planned sessions. They were able to use the 11 games, and participants trained with GOLIAH improved time to perform the task in most JA games and imitation scores in most imitation games. GOLIAH intervention did not affect Parental Stress Index scores. At end-point, we found in both groups a significant improvement for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule scores, Vineland socialization score, Parental Stress Index total score, and Child Behavior Checklist internalizing, externalizing and total problems. However, we found no significant change for by time × group interaction.ConclusionsDespite the lack of superiority of TAU + GOLIAH versus TAU, the results are interesting both in terms of changes by using the gaming platform and lack of parental stress increase. A large randomized controlled trial with younger participants (who are the core target of ESDM model) is now discussed. This should be facilitated by computing GOLIAH for a web platform.Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT0256041

Computer games as a subject of psychological research – negative and positive aspects of gaming

Computer games are an interactive form of entertainment that is popular with younger and younger players. Therefore researchers are actively seeking information on the consequences of pursuing this type of pastime. At the beginning, the researchers’ attention was focused mainly on the negative aspects of gaming. Nowadays, more and more benefits related to this activity are being indicated. In 2014, Granic, Lobel and Engels published an article on the benefits of playing computer games. The researchers focused on four areas: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social. They wanted to inspire new research on mental health benefits of gaming by pointing to various research reports they selected. This paper aims to present the research directions explored in recent years by researchers who strive to describe the positive and negative consequences of gaming. I present the main directions and examples of research in these areas, highlighting the ambiguity of the current results. Problematic areas related to gaming include aggression and violence, addiction, weakening of social relations, experiencing undesirable emotions, sexualization, racial prejudice, and racial discrimination. The indicated opportunities and benefits are the strengthening of cognitive, motor, emotional, and social competences