MartialHearts: An Interactive Taekwondo Game Targeting Executive Functioning and Anxiety in Children with Congenital Cardiac Disease

Children with congenital heart disease (CHD) have deficits in executive functioning and heightened anxiety. Behavioral interventions delivered via technology can improve both cognitive and emotional functioning in youth. Further, data indicate that martial arts and cognitive-behavioral strategies are especially beneficial at enhancing executive functioning and lowering anxiety in children via the combination of exercise, mindfulness, and focus. There is a gap in the literature as to whether martial arts combined with cognitive-behavioral strategies might be taught via technology, and whether this intervention might improve functioning in youth with CHD. Our goal is to develop a prototype of MartialHearts, an interactive taekwondo and cognitive-behavioral skills game to improve mindfulness, executive functioning, and anxiety for children with CHD. Our central hypothesis is that children playing MartialHearts will demonstrate improved mindfulness, better executive functioning, and lower anxiety than children not receiving the intervention. Our objectives include: 1) develop a prototype of MartialHearts, an interactive video game that improves mindfulness, executive functioning, and anxiety; 2) conduct a pilot comparison of MartialHearts and a control condition on functioning in youth with CHD; 3) obtain data to successfully compete for federal funds to comprehensively evaluate a more sophisticated version of MartialHearts. We hope to acquire evidence that incorporating cognitive-behavioral strategies with a mindfulness-based exercise program can improve functioning across domains in youth. Our long-term aims are to use this program to meet the needs of a variety of populations that show executive function, anxiety, and related deficits (e.g., children with ADHD, children from impoverished backgrounds).