CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05384717Updated Nov 3, 2022

Examining the Impacts of Fidget Technology on Attention in Children With ADHD

An interventional study of Fidget Device and Control group in ADHD, sponsored by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 6 Years to 13 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-11-03.

Sponsored by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
21
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
6 Years to 13 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of fidget technology and its effects on attention, working memory, and comprehension in children ages 6-13 with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study aims to examine the implications of fidget usage 2 different measures of attention; attentional control (working memory domain) and comprehension (recall, encoding, and recognition).

Participants: 6-13 year-old clients at 3-C Family Services, a private mental health clinic in Cary, NC, with a diagnosis of ADHD (Inattentive, Hyperactive, or combined types). Exclusion criteria: participants with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) below 70 as estimated by referring 3-C clinical staff, or any history of psychosis.

Procedures (methods): This research will use a demographic and background collecting survey to gather relevant data about each participant. Parents will be asked to fill out a baseline ADHD Rating Scale-IV: Home Version (ADHD-RS), to account for their child's symptoms of ADHD over the past 6 months. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of 2 conditions, an experimental group where participants select a fidget, and a control group where participants are not provided a fidget. Fidget options will include a fidget spinner, pop-it, stress ball, and fidget cube as not all children would benefit from the same type of fidget equally. Participants in the experimental group will then be allowed to practice with and familiarize themselves with the fidget for 1 minute to decrease the attentional drain that the fidget may pose in its initial state.

After random assignment to either control or experimental group, participants in each group will then complete the same 2-back version of the N-back Attention Control Task (cognitivefun.net), and a video comprehension multiple choice test. After 3 minutes N-back scores will be recorded including visual correct ratio and visual response time scores. The video comprehension item is adapted from Lee and List, 2019. The video is a Ted Talk titled "The Survival of the Sea Turtle" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-KmQ6pGxg4). Items in the multiple choice test will be aggregated to a score of percent correctness for each participant. Participants may request to have questions read to them by the research assistant present.

02

Conditions studied

  • ADHD

Keywords

  • Fidget technology
  • ADHD
  • Children
  • Developmental Psychology
03

In context

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity

1,514 studies on the registry are indexed under Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; 255 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 21 is below the median of 72 across 1,207 interventional studies indexed under Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity.

Browse Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity studies →

Lead sponsor

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is the lead sponsor of 1,340 studies on the registry; 133 are open to participants now.

Of its 155 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 136 (88%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
6 Years to 13 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Diagnosis of ADHD

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Psychosis
  • IQ under 70
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
21 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Fidget group

    Participants in the experimental fidget group select a fidget from 4 options: fidget spinner, stress ball, pop-it, or fidget cube

    Other: Fidget Device

  • Placebo comparator
    Control group

    No fidget choice provided

    Other: Control group

Interventions

  • OtherFidget Device

    Fidget spinner, stress ball, pop-it, or fidget cube

  • OtherControl group

    No intervention

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. N-back Visual correct ratio

    The N-Back task is a measure of working memory. Participants are presented a sequence of stimuli and must decide if the current stimulus is the same as the one presented two trials ago. Max value= 1, min value =0, higher scores are closer to 1

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

  2. N-back visual response time

    The N-Back task is a measure of working memory. Participants are presented a sequence of stimuli and must decide if the current stimulus is the same as the one presented two trials ago. The lower the score the better (indicates less time to decide on n-back). For response time measure there is no minimum or maximum.

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

  3. Number of correct multiple choice responses out of 10

    Participants answer 10 multiple choice questions to assess comprehension of Ted Talk video. Multiple choice questions adapted from Lee \& List, 2019. Max value= 10, min value = 0. Best possible score = 10, higher scores are better.

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

Secondary outcomes

  1. ADHD-RS Home Version Score

    Parents complete a 18 question assessment of child's ADHD symptoms over the past 6 months. Max score= 54, Min score= 0. Higher score indicates more ADHD symptoms.

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

  2. Parent-reported type of ADHD

    Parents indicate the type of ADHD their child presents with. Categorical variable: Inattentive, Hyperactive, or Combined

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

  3. Type of fidget selected

    4 choices of fidget are available to each participant in the experimental group. Categorical variable- fidget spinner, stress ball, pop-it, or fidget cube

    Time frame: Day 1 (Up to 30 minutes)

07

Study locations

1 site
  • 3-C Family Services
    Cary, North Carolina 27513, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Lee, Hye Yeon & List, Alexandra. (2019). Processing of texts and videos: A strategy-focused analysis. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 35. 10.1111/jcal.12328

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Deidentified individual data that supports the results will be shared beginning 9 to 36 months following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with UNC.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Sap, Icf

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 3, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05384717
Lead sponsor
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Collaborators
3-C Family Services
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
May 20, 2022
Start date
Apr 18, 2022
Primary completion
Aug 24, 2022
Completion
Sep 24, 2022
Last update
Nov 3, 2022

Study contacts

Jennifer R Persia
principal investigator · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Steven G Buzinski
study chair · University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lori A Schweickert
study director · 3-C Family Services

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in May 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion