Managing ADHD children's emotions in narrative video games

This thesis seeks to understand whether or not narrative video games contribute to better emotion management in children with ADHD. ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a neurodevelopmental disorder often associated with emotional dysregulation, leading to difficulties in managing emotions on a daily basis. Narrative video games, in which children are represented by an avatar living out a story of some kind, could potentially have a positive effect on their emotional behaviour. Based on around fifteen interviews with ADHD children and their parents (or relatives), I was able to find out about their day-to-day experience of emotion-related behaviour in ADHD children, enabling me to understand the link between the use of narrative video games and the management of these children's emotions. I also learnt that each type of narrative video game contributes to a change in the ADHD child's behaviour according to their emotions: construction games allow the ADHD child to calm down, while strategy and combat games lead to an increase in frustration and therefore anger.