Hospital-Made Game RAGE Control Helps Children Learn Anger Management

A study has found that a video game using biofeedback can help children to develop anger management skills. The game was developed by Jason Kahn, PhD, and Joseph Gonzales-Heydrich, MD, at Boston Children's Hospital to appeal to children's love of video games and distaste for formal therapy.

RAGE Control has players shoot enemy spaceships and avoid shooting friendly ones. Children playing the game wear a monitor on one finger that monitors their heart rate and displays it on the screen. If their heart rate rises too high, players lose the ability to shoot at the enemy spaceships, so to win the game they must learn to stay calm enough to stop that from happening.

The initial study investigated the game's effects on children between the ages of nine and seventeen who had high levels of anger. Eighteen of these children had fifteen minutes playing RAGE Control in each of their psychotherapy sessions, as well as standard treatment, and their results were compared with a control group of nineteen children who just had the standard treatment. After five sessions, those who had played the game were able to keep their heart rate down better than those who hadn't.

Further research is necessary, but these preliminary results are promising. Surely if children can actually enjoy treatment for issues they might have, they're far more likely to actively engage with that treatment in the first place.