Web Program Promoting Collaborative Care for Youth ADHD

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): ADHD is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and among the most prevalent chronic health conditions affecting school-aged children. The prevalence of ADHD in school-aged children ranges from 4-12 percent. Approximately 3.5 million children meet the criteria for ADHD, yet only about 50 percent of these children are adequately diagnosed and treated. While a lot is known about ADHD, a lot more can be done to effectively put this knowledge into everyday practice. One reason that many ADHD children are not adequately treated is that it can be very challenging to formulate a comprehensive approach to addressing and managing ADHD. The vast majority of efforts involve isolated efforts by school systems, parents, and treatment providers. The importance of facilitating an integrated effort, however, is paramount given that positive outcomes are achieved when interventions involve a systematic appraisal and integration of the child's total environment. The goal of this project is to assess the educational and psycho-social needs of parents, teachers, and ADHD youth and to develop and test a web-based multi-media program designed to meet and integrate these varied needs. The program will be designed for administration to school staff and parents with ADHD children. The program will focus upon providing behavioral techniques and tools that facilitate the development of effective strategies for collaboration between school and home and to promote the implementation of targeted goals for maximizing academic and personal success. In Phase I, needs assessments were conducted with teachers, parents, and middle-school youth. Experts in the fields of developmental and clinical psychology assisted in reviewing the scientific and educational content of the program. Parents and teachers also reviewed the program and commented upon specific dimensions of the content. Parents and teachers evaluated the program on usefulness, applicability and relevance to their needs and all feasibility criteria were met. In Phase II, the program will be fully developed. This will include adding a platform and interface that allows for communication between parents and teachers and the sharing of common goals and strategies. Following development of the full program it will be field-tested on parents and teachers to measure the ability of the program to effectively educate users and facilitate the ability to address issues commonly associated with ADHD. Following testing the program will be prepared for marketing. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and among the most prevalent chronic health conditions affecting school-age children. While much is known about the disorder, gaps exist in finding resources that address an integrated approach to care and effectively promote communication between teachers and parents. The outcome of this SBIR project will be to develop a multi-media web-based program that focuses on behavioral and communications techniques and tools to facilitate home-school collaboration thus creating a mechanism for a child with ADHD to thrive in school and the community.