Effects of Inline Skating Exercise on Symptoms, Executive Functions, and Motor Proficiency in Children With ADHD: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

The study recruited 24 children when its own power calculation called for 49, so it may have missed smaller effects. The authors state that the actual effect sizes were not large and that clinical relevance is limited. All the children were boys of primary-school age (6 to 12 years), so nothing here speaks to girls, teenagers, or children with other conditions alongside ADHD. Medication and other usual treatments were neither controlled nor recorded, so some of the improvement could have come from changes outside the skating programme. Executive function and motor proficiency were measured with only three tests, and the exercise intensity of the skating sessions was never actually measured. The comparison group did nothing active during the first phase rather than doing a different activity, so it is not clear whether inline skating itself matters or whether any organised programme would produce the same gains. ADHD symptom severity was rated only by parents, who knew their child was taking part in the programme and when, so those ratings may be biased. The children's individual IQ scores were not available to the researchers; the quoted range of 90 to 120 came from the school counsellor.

Do not read this as proof that inline skating works for ADHD. The trial recruited 24 children when its own power calculation called for 49, every participant was a primary-school-age boy, and medication and other treatments were neither controlled nor recorded, so some of the improvement may have come from changes outside the programme. The authors themselves state the actual effect sizes were not large.