A Preliminary Study of Voicebot to Assist ADHD Children in Performing Daily Tasks

Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) child patients have difficulty in starting and completing daily tasks successfully on time due to executive function impairment. As a result, issues arise due to the patient having low self-efficacy and frequent troubles with parents. This study is a parallel pilot randomized controlled trial that suggests the usefulness of a voicebot to assist children with ADHD in performing daily tasks. A dialogue structure to help children’s self-instruction training and a token-based economies method for task performance were applied to the voicebot. Sixteen children and their parents [Intervention group (n = 7), Control group (n = 9)] participated in an 8-week, home-based field study. We developed the voicebot using Raspberry Pi and allowed children with ADHD to use it four times a day through voice interaction. We found that children’s use of the voicebot helped them to increase their self-efficacy, decrease the inattentiveness, increase self-control in completing daily tasks, and decrease the severity of behavioral problems. The study also revealed that it can help improve parent-child relationships. This study will be informative for researchers who engage in future studies that seek to provide insights into the area of assistive care for children with ADHD.

Disclosure statement

Do Eun Park and Yee Jin Shin have patent #10-2367862 licensed to Commissioner, Korean Intellectual Property Office. Jinwoo Kim is the CEO of HAII Co., Ltd.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2016R1D1A1B02015987). And this work was partly supported by the Technology Development Program of MSS (S2738884).

Notes on contributors

Do Eun Park

Do Eun Park is a researcher at Yonsei HCI Lab. She is a candidate for a PhD degree in HCI from Yonsei University. Her research interests include HCI, child-computer interaction, and digital healthcare.

Junghan Lee

Junghan Lee is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Yonsei University. He received an MD and a PhD from Yonsei University. His research interests include game addiction and digital healthcare.

Jeehyun Han

Jeehyun Han is currently working as an UX researcher at HMC after received her MS degree in cognitive science and engineering from Yonsei university. Her research interests include HCI, interaction design, and artificial companionship.

Jinwoo Kim

Jinwoo Kim is a professor of HCI at Yonsei University. He received an MS and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. His research interest focuses on applying HCI to digital health, which includes digital therapeutics and digital biomarker.

Yee Jin Shin

Yee Jin Shin is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Yonsei University. She received an MD and a PhD from Yonsei University. Her research interests include neurodevelopmental disorder, and digital healthcare.