If your child - or any schoolchild you know - has been diagnosed with ADHD, a new pilot programme in the works could be something of interest. It is funded by the EU and involves UCD, HADD-Ireland and CNR-ITD (Italy) along with WordsWorth Learning.
The team behind WordsWorth Learning (WWL) - a programme first developed to help children with learning difficulties learn to read and spell through different means - are planning to launch a pilot scheme introducing Augmented Reality (AR) into the original WordsWorth Learning subscription service - to improve learning outcomes for kids specifically with ADHD. And they are looking for schoolchildren with an ADHD diagnosis to participate.
So, what is WordsWorth Learning?
WordsWorth Learning (WWL) is a system that helps children and adults overcome dyslexia as well as reading and spelling disorders. It is also used to generally help children with their reading and spelling skills. Founded by speech and language Rita Treacy, who had dyslexia herself, she told MummyPages that she came up with the idea for the learning programme after becoming frustrated at the lack of resources for those who needed help via different means than the standard teachings in schools, for example. "WWL goes right back to basics, to the pre-reading stages, from letters to speech and sounds and builds up stage by stage in a very logical way," she explained. The programme is simple and easy to grasp - and parents and teachers don't need to be trained to help their children use it at home.
WWL is now an extremely successful online learning tool - a lot of schools are also taking it on as part of their programme - and Rita is working with a team to advance it to the next stage: using Augmented Reality in the original programme specifically intended to help the teachings of children with ADHD.
How will this pilot programme help children with ADHD?
According to Rita, it is hoped that this new feature of WWL will help to enhance the focus and attention of children with ADHD over time. "The idea is that we'll use AR - which creates graphics, sounds, and touch feedback added into our natural world to create an enhanced user experience - so that those with ADHD will engage more with what's in front of them and this will help their focus over time." The research being done as a result of this pilot scheme will mean you'll be participating in helping to develop the next generation of tools to help educate children and those with ADHD around the country.
They are looking for primary school children currently in 4th, 5th and 6th class in the academic year 2018/2019 to take part, who have a diagnosis of ADHD.
What will happen should my child take part?
Your child and the other students involved will randomly be divided into 3 groups: a control group, a group with WWL intervention and a group with AR WWL intervention. All students will receive a free literary assessment (on reading and spelling etc) prior to starting. They will be asked to use the programme throughout the academic year. It is expected that each session will be 15 minutes in length (one per day) and will take place Monday to Friday during school hours. The students will then be re-assessed by experts to measure the impact.
What do I need to do to get my child signed up to participate?
For more information on this project, please visit aha.ucd.ie or email: aha@ucd.ie
