According to a 2016 survey by the CDC, 6.1% of children and adolescents are diagnosed with ADHD (Center for Disease Control, 2018). ADHD can take the form of inattentiveness, hyperactivity, or some combination of each.
Finding a single technology to assist all students who have been diagnosed with ADHD is an ill-structured problem in that each child can have different symptoms with different severities. There is no single solution that will work for every person and for some students, technology use may be detrimental (Sibley, 2108).
Students with the inattentiveness subtype of ADHD can have trouble organizing tasks, lose items such as planners or homework, be easily distracted, and forget to do regular activities such as homework (Mayo Clinic). However, according to Franklin et al. (2017), tools such as reminders can be used to effectively reduce the effects of mind-wandering and help keep the individual on task.
I looked for an app that could help a specific student organize homework, remind him it was time to do the task, and not be distracting. I decided to implement an app called any.do because it has all of these qualities.
The student can use the app to easily set reminders as soon as homework assignments are given and then receive alerts to do them later. It is simple and doesn’t present distracting information. It allows the student to share lists with a parent in case he or she needs help staying on track.
Though the app is simple, it was not created specifically for people with ADHD. For the student I have in mind it would be ideal if it had only the absolute minimum features. Perhaps that would be a worthwhile project for an app developer.
REFERENCES
Center for Disease Control (2018). Data and Statistics About ADHD. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html.
Franklin, M. S., Mrazek, M. D., Anderson, C. L., Johnston, C., Smallwood, J., Kingstone, A., & Schooler, J. W. (2017). Tracking distraction: The relationship between mind-wandering, meta-awareness, and ADHD symptomatology. Journal of Attention Disorders, 21(6), 475–486. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054714543494
Mayo Clinic. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/adhd/symptoms-causes/syc-20350889
Sibley, M. H. (2018) Digital media use and ADHD symptoms. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 320(24). Retrieved from http://za2uf4ps7f.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Digital+Media+Use+and+ADHD+Symptoms&rft.jtitle=JAMA&rft.au=Sibley%2C+Margaret+H&rft.au=Coxe%2C+Stefany+J&rft.date=2018-12-25&rft.issn=0098-7484&rft.eissn=1538-3598&rft.volume=320&rft.issue=24&rft.spage=2599&rft_id=info:doi/10.1001%2Fjama.2018.18095&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1001_jama_2018_18095¶mdict=en-US
Brian Durst EdTech 