The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is widely recognized as an evidence-based intervention that reinforces prosocial behaviors and discourages disruptive behaviors among students in the classroom setting. The current meta-analysis synthesized randomized controlled trials of the GBG to examine its impact on proximal student outcomes across seven studies representing 4,700 children. Although recent reviews focusing on single-case studies of the GBG have reported moderate to large treatment effects, our results were quite modest in comparison (hedges’ g = 0.09-0.32). Treatment effect sizes also varied according to outcome and sex. The GBG significantly outperformed the comparison conditions for peer-rated conduct problems and shy/withdrawn behavior as well as teacher-rated conduct problems for which a greater effect was found for girls relative to boys. Moreover, the treatment effect in favor of the GBG for reading comprehension was specific to boys and not girls. No significant differences were found between the GBG and comparison conditions for inattention and teacher-rated shy/withdrawn behavior. These results suggest that the GBG may not be as impactful as originally reported and the intended population and treatment targets should be considered before its implementation in the classroom.

Objective: This study evaluated the efficacy of an Integrated Brain, Body, and Social (IBBS) intervention for children with ADHD. Treatment consisted of computerized cognitive remediation training, physical exercises, and a behavior management strategy. Method: Ninety-two children aged 5 to 9 years with ADHD were randomly assigned to 15 weeks of IBBS or to treatment-as-usual. Primary outcome measures included blinded clinician ratings of ADHD symptoms and global clinical functioning. Secondary outcome measures consisted of parent and teacher ratings of ADHD and neurocognitive tests. Results: No significant treatment effects were found on any of our primary outcome measures. In terms of secondary outcome measures, the IBBS group showed significant improvement on a verbal working memory task; however, this result did not survive correction for multiple group comparisons. Conclusion: These results suggest that expanding cognitive training to multiple domains by means of two training modalities does not lead to generalized improvement of ADHD symptomatology.

At present, there are no well-validated biomarkers for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present study used an infrared motion tracking system to monitor and record the movement intensity of children and to determine its diagnostic precision for ADHD and its possible associations with ratings of ADHD symptom severity. A Microsoft motion sensing camera recorded the movement of children during a modified Go/No-Go Task. Movement intensity measures extracted from these data included a composite measure of total movement intensity (TMI measure) and a movement intensity distribution (MID measure) measure across 15 frequency bands (FB measures). In phase 1 of the study, 30 children diagnosed with ADHD or at subthreshold for ADHD and 30 matched healthy controls were compared to determine if measures of movement intensity successfully distinguished children with ADHD from healthy control children. In phase 2, associations between measures of movement intensity and clinician-rated ADHD symptom severity (Clinical Global Impression Scale [CGI] and the ADHD-Rating Scale IV [ADHD-RS]) were examined in a subset of children with ADHD (n = 14) from the phase I sample. Both measures of movement intensity were able to distinguish children with ADHD from healthy controls. However, only the measures linked to the 15 pre-determined 1 Hz frequency bands were significantly correlated with both the CGI scores and ADHD-RS total scores. Preliminary findings suggest that measures of movement intensity, particularly measures linked to the 10–11 and 12–13 Hz frequency bands, have the potential to become valid biomarkers for ADHD.