Application: Children with ADS
Children & Young People’s Psychiatric Service (Baselland)
Angelika Berger (Dipl. Psych., neuropsychologist FSP/GNP, senior psychologist)
“Since 2003 the Baselland Children & Young People’s Psychiatric Service in Switzerland has been running therapy groups for children with ADS in the age range 9 – 12, focusing on attention. A core tool of this group therapy is computerised attention training – originally using the AIXTENT program and now with the new version CogniPlus.
The group therapy, which is conducted by a team of psychologists, is intensive; it consists of 20 sessions with the children and accompanying parents’ evenings. In the therapy sessions each child uses the computer to work on two areas of attention.
The children very much enjoy working with CogniPlus. The tasks are designed to arouse their interest and the graphics are appealing. The use of the program is also easy for the children to master. Clinical catamnesis indicates very satisfactory improvement for a large proportion of the children as revealed both in the re-testing of attentional performance and in the assessments of parents and teachers.”