A mobile-based sensory diet application to educate parents of children with attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder

Due to the high prevalence of attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the problems that this disorder causes for patients and their parents, scientist believe that the treatment of this disorder is particularly important. Among the available treatments, sensory integration and sensory diet has proven to have a powerful impact on the improvement of these children. In the present study, we aimed to design and evaluate a sensory diet mobile application for children with ADHD.

We conducted the present applied developmental research in two stages. First, we performed a needs assessment with 15 occupational therapists; then, the prototype of the mobile application was designed under the Android platform. Finally, to evaluate the usability and satisfaction of users with the QUIS (version 5.5), we tested the application with 12 parents of children with ADHD after two weeks of using the program. Also, we analyzed the data through descriptive statistics using SPSS (version 22).

The participants confirmed the six definitions out of 14 needs, nine out of 10 features of the application, and all 67 exercises. Also, general section of the designed program includes: The patient profile, the definition of attention deficit/ hyperactivity, the definition of a sensory diet, exercise list, weekly exercise schedule, the record of exercise date, and a section for setting. Mobile application usability evaluation showed that the users evaluated the application with a mean score of 8.35 out of nine points which is considered at a good level.

Sensory diet mobile application can be used to help improve children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.