ADHD
How do extra tasks affect walking in children with ADHD?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Both children with ADHD and typically developing children walk more slowly and with more irregular steps when they have to complete a mental or physical task at the same time.
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How do extra tasks affect walking in children with ADHD?
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30 children with ADHD participated in the study
The sample included in this study comprised 30 children with ADHD (25 boys and 5 girls, M age = 10.9 years, age range: 7–13 years, without or off medication) and 28 typically developing controls (25 boys and 3 girls, M age = 10.8 years, age range: 7–13 years) and has been described in a previous study in detail (Manicolo et al., ).
five digits were presented in the cognitive memory task
The cognitive task comprised listening to and memorizing digits (digits) (Lindenberger et al., ; Leitner et al., ), where children heard a list comprising five digits presented in a randomized order from a computer over loudspeakers that were installed at the front left and front right corner of the laboratory.
Key findings
Adding any extra task caused children in both groups to walk more slowly and with greater step variability, but the two groups did not differ from each other in their walking patterns during these double-task scenarios. However, the physical buttoning task caused a greater drop in walking performance than the mental memory task for all children. Additionally, children with ADHD recalled fewer numbers than the control group during the combined walking and memory task.
Methodology
The researchers compared 30 children with ADHD to 28 typically developing children, all between 7 and 13 years old. Participants walked across a specialized pressure-sensitive mat under different conditions: walking normally, walking while memorizing a list of five digits, or walking while buttoning and unbuttoning a shirt. The researchers measured walking speed and step-to-step consistency across these conditions.
Limitations
The study did not include children diagnosed with both ADHD and developmental coordination disorder, which limits how well these findings apply to the large portion of children who have both conditions. The wide age range of 7 to 13 years might mask age-related differences in how children adapt to multitasking, since walking and cognitive control develop rapidly during these years. Furthermore, the memory task used was relatively simple and did not heavily test higher-level mental planning, meaning more complex mental tasks might produce different results.
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