孩子患有多动症，注意力不集中怎么办？或许你可以试着让孩子打打电子游戏。美国于2020年批准了第一款用于治疗儿童多动症的电子游戏，效果居然比吃药还显著。

 

While many parents worry that their children spend too much time playing computer games, Kelcey Sihanourath is pleased to see her son Owain pick up his tablet.

虽然当下很多父母都为孩子花太多时间玩电子游戏感到烦恼，但凯尔希·西哈努拉特很高兴看到儿子欧文拿起平板电脑打游戏。

 

Now aged 13, he was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in pre-school.

现年13岁的欧文在幼儿园时被诊断出患有多动症（注意力缺陷多动障碍）。

 

Since then, the family, who live in the US city of Savannah, Georgia, have taken Owain to see occupational therapists to help him better cope with everyday life tasks.

从那时起，这个居住在美国乔治亚州萨凡纳市的家庭便经常带着欧文去看职业理疗师，帮助他更好地应对日常生活中的任务。

 

They also tried the medication route, but had to stop after the prescribed drugs exacerbated the boy's regular migraines, and made him sick.

他们也尝试过吃药，但最终不得不放弃了，因为处方药加剧了欧文定期发作的偏头疼症状，让他恶心想吐。

 

With ADHD continuing to affect Owain's school performance over the years, Kelcey says she was "hoping for something more, for any other option".

由于过去这些年多动症持续影响欧文的学业表现，凯尔希表示“希望能有一些别的疗法可选择”。

 

"I could see him struggling to understand why he was not able to focus, and the frustration he had when he tried so hard and would still get distracted," she says. "It broke my heart, but I felt trapped and completely useless."

她说：“我能看出他很想知道自己为什么不能集中注意力，也能明白他努力尝试但仍会分心的那种挫败感。我很心痛，但我感觉自己像是被困住了一样，什么忙也帮不上。”

 

Help came in the end from what initially seems very incongruous - a computer game called EndeavorRx.

最终，一款起初看似不合时宜的名为EndeavorRx的电子游戏居然帮上了忙。

 

In 2020 it became the first such game to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the treatment of ADHD in children.

EndeavorRx在2020年获得美国食品和药物管理局的批准，成为了第一款用于治疗儿童多动症的电子游戏。

 

Currently only available on prescription from doctors in the US, EndeavorRx at first glance looks very similar to countless other games. You control a little alien that races on a spaceship through different worlds having to collect things.

EndeavorRx乍看之下与其他无数电子游戏很类似。在这款游戏中，玩家控制一个开飞船穿梭于不同世界的小外星人来收集各种物品。该游戏目前只能通过美国医生开具处方获得。

 

But the app-based game was developed in conjunction with neuroscientists, and is designed to stimulate and improve areas of the brain that play a key role in attention function.

这款与神经学家联合开发的游戏应用是用来刺激和改善对注意力功能起关键作用的大脑区域的。

 

The idea is that it trains a child with ADHD to both better multitask and ignore distractions, with a computer algorithm measuring his or her performance and customising the difficulty of the game in real time.

该游戏的原理是通过电脑算法衡量玩家的表现，并根据其表现实时变更游戏难度，训练那些患有多动症的孩子更好地处理多个任务，不再分心。

 

Kelcey says she was "a little sceptical", but at the end of 2020 Owain started a three-month programme, playing the game for 25 minutes a day. He then did another round last year.

凯尔希说自己最初对游戏疗法“有点怀疑”，但在2020年底欧文开始了为期三个月的疗程，每天玩25分钟这款游戏。去年他又重复了一个疗程。

 

"He admitted it was a little harder than he expected," she says. "But he understood that he was doing it to help improve his focus. He remained super motivated despite the difficulties and frustrations that came along with it."

凯尔希说：“他承认玩这款游戏比他预想的要难一些，但他明白他这样做是为了帮助自己提高注意力。因此尽管游戏过程中伴随着困难与挫折，他仍然保持着超强的动力。”

 

After each of Owain's sessions she noted his daily behaviour in the app, and tracked his progress.

欧文每次游戏结束后，凯尔希都会在应用程序中记录他的日常行为，追踪他的进展。

 

Soon she started to see small, positive changes in his behaviour. For example, getting ready for school had become smoother, and there were no negative messages from teachers.

她很快发觉他的行为举止发生了细小、积极的变化。比如，为上学做准备的过程变得更加顺利，老师那边也没有传来负面讯息。

 

And after failing fifth grade, Owain subsequently shot up to getting As and Bs for his work.

随后，五年级不及格的欧文在学业上取得了A和B的好成绩。

 

"It has been amazing to see my son so successful, but more so, seeing him have confidence in himself," Kelcey says. "He is no longer upset and confused about why he just does not get it."

凯尔希说：“看到儿子如此成功让我很惊喜，但更让我高兴的是他现在有了自信心，他不再为自己为什么做不到而感到沮丧和困惑了。”

 

Eddie Martucci, chief executive of Akili, the Boston-based tech firm behind EndeavorRx, says the game has been designed to boost cognitive progressing.

开发EndeavorRx 游戏的波士顿科技公司 Akili 的首席执行官艾迪·马尔图齐表示，设计这款游戏的初衷就是促进认知进步。

 

"It is something that's very difficult to get through molecular means, like taking a pill. But it turns out that sensory stimuli can actually directly stimulate parts of the brain controlling cognitive function."

他表示：“认知功能是很难通过吃药等分子学手段来提升的。但事实证明，感官刺激方法可以直接刺激大脑中控制认知功能的部位。”

 

His company now plans to launch the game in Europe in the next few years.

他的公司计划未来几年内在欧洲推出这款游戏。