"I've never seen anything grab their attention so much."
So says Anjana Bhat, a professor of physical therapy at the University of Delaware and the lead author of a new study that suggests using video games to improve movement in children with autism.
Bhat and her team have been using Ring Fit on the Nintendo Switch to help children with autism get their daily dose of exercise.
"Children love video games, and they're fun," Bhat says in a press release, "but there's also a lot of evidence that video games with an exercise component have positive effects on cognition, social interactions, and general physical activity levels."
In her pilot study, Bhat and her team tested Ring Fit on a dozen children with autism over eight weeks.
"The consensus is that it works," Bhat says.
"I've never seen anything grab their attention so much."
Games like tennis, volleyball, badminton, golf, sword fighting, and bowling focus on the upper extremities, while soccer focuses on the lower extremities.
"With exergaming and the variety of content that exists, most children remain engaged, and that's what's so unusual about this intervention compared to past interventions," Bhat says.
"This is one place where children with autism shine."
Bhat's
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