SBIR-STTR Award

Our objective is to create a pharmaceutical-free alternative for the management of the hyperactive child. We will design a convenient, unobtrusive device which, when used by a teacher and/or school psychologist together with an operant reinforcement approach, will reduce and possibly normalize a child's hyperactive behavior. We will combine well-established state-of-the-art actigraphic technology and telemetric control with a socially acceptable "digital pager" type packaging and feedback (vibro- tactile, audible, visual), Feedback will be directly proportional to "excessive" activity. Baseline activity on 10 hyperactive boys and up to 20 normal controls will be digitally recorded in classroom settings. These values will be a starting point from which to customize stepwise, short-range activity reduction goals for the hyperactive children. Gradual activity level reductions will be contingently reinforced using individualized stimuli and privileges deemed reinforcing by the child, teacher, and school psychologist. The innovation of this proposal lies in the combination of three well- developed technologies (actigraphy, digital wireless telemetry, and operant conditioning) in teacher-friendly packaging. It provides a discrete, data-driven, drug-free alternative for managing the hyperactive child in the school setting. Feedback actigraphy may help the child better attend to his teacher, resulting in improved learning and better grades.Proposed Commercial Applications:A cost-effective Feedback Actigraph for ADHD management has potential application with school children. School psychologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and mental health personnel can explore the non-invasive, pharmaceutical-free management of ADHD.

Thesaurus Terms:
attention deficit disorder, biomedical equipment development, body movement, operant conditioning, patient monitoring device, psychotherapy, telemetry clinical biomedical equipment, human therapy evaluation clinical research, human subject, male

This application addresses the need for an alternative to pharmacological treatment of children diagnosed with ADHD (and other conditions that may present motoric excess). Technological enhancements to the Phase I Feedback Actigraph, now referred to as BuzzBee(TM), will allow multiple activity recorders (belt-worn by ADHD diagnosed children) equipped with vibrotactile, auditory, and visual feedback to be controlled via telemetry by a teacher and/or school psychologist. Phase I results pointed out the need for remote handling of the device in order to minimize child embarrassment and teacher workload in a mainstream classroom. This project seeks to provide definitive proof as to the efficacy of this behavioral management technique by employing measures that have been successfully employed in the validation of pharmacological therapies for the same population. A single blind crossover design varying activity contingent, and sham feedback will utilize a combination of teacher rating scales and time-on-task measurements. In addition, we are including two state-of-the-art measures for demonstrating efficacy on a subset of subjects, the OPTAx and fMRI. OPTAx involves a high precision optical measurement of head movement in three dimensions during the performance of cognitive tests, while fMRI measures blood flow in an area of the brain linked to ADHD. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: A cost effective final product feedback actigraph device (to be called the "BuzzBee" System) will have great potential in the management of ADHD, both in the school, and home environment. School psychologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, and mental health personnel can explore a non-invasive, pharmaceutical free means to manage ADHD.

Public Health Relevance:
This Public Health Relevance is not available.

Thesaurus Terms:
Attention Deficit Disorder, Biofeedback, Biomedical Equipment Development, Body Physical Activity, Human Therapy Evaluation, Operant Conditioning, Patient Monitoring Device, Psychotherapy, Telemetry Body Movement, Clinical Biomedical Equipment, Electrotactile Communication Adolescence (12-20), Clinical Research, Human Subject