Your ADHD Treatments: Are They Working?
Join San Diego Kids First in helping to test an exciting new app to answer this question!
These days, when hearing the words “inattention” or “impulsivity”, most people immediately think of ADHD. But the truth is that there are many causes of these behaviors. And even when ADHD is the cause, dialing in on the right set of interventions can be an exhausting, time-consuming process.
The fundamental challenge is that there are simply so many factors at play: different people respond differently to medications, behaviors show themselves in one context but not others, important trends are overlooked in the noise of daily ups and downs. All these dynamics play out against a moving backdrop of other changes in school, friends, family and therapy.
Key to disentangling this knot is finding accurate, reliable and easy ways to assess how well an ADHD intervention is working. I am so pleased to announce that San Diego Kids First is helping to test a promising new app—one developed right here, in San Diego—to do just that.
In collaboration with students at the UCSD Rady School of Management, Dr. Nicholas Levy, pediatrician with Scripps Memorial Hospital, has developed the How’s Your Day? app. Simple to use, highly customizable and full of potential to bring some clarity to the complex landscape of ADHD treatments. In a nutshell, here’s how it works:
- From a comprehensive pool, you choose a list of up to 5 Daily Questions (fewer than 5 is fine).
- Questions track the behaviors and symptoms most important to you.
- In less than 30 seconds per day, you answer the Daily Questions—you can even set an automatic reminder!
- Each week, you have the opportunity to alter your set of questions.
- The app tracks the data and generates a Response History graph to visualize trends over time.
- Where appropriate, access can be shared with teachers to have them track responses as well.
Best of all, Dr. Levy and his collaborators have made the first version of this innovative new tool available for use by San Diego Kids First clients and families!
To get the app, just follow the link, register for free, and start picking your 5 Daily Questions! And please let us know that you’re using the app, so we at SDKF can make the best use of its insights to inform your work with us.
Sincerely,
Deb Pontillo, Ph.D.
Director, San Diego Kids First