New interactive tool to transform the assessment of attention skills in pre-school children being trialled
Recent research has demonstrated that up to 40% of children at the age of four show significant difficulties with their ability to pay attention. Attention skills are strong predictors of learning, language, reading and numeracy skills; therefore, if problems in attention are not picked up in early childhood, they can have a cascading impact on development, and may result in lifelong challenges.
Attention skills are predominantly assessed through behavioural observation and subjective parental questionnaires. However, these approaches are typically conducted later in childhood when many years of vital early intervention may have been missed.
In order to transform the assessment of attention skills in pre-school children, MICCN researchers have designed a novel touchscreen interactive tool to capture and reliably assess attention skills in children aged four to six years. The tool, known as TALI Detect™, aims to provide a scalable and easily accessible assessment method to identify early childhood attentional issues. If successfully validated, this interactive, tablet-based cognitive assessment tool will enable national screening of attention difficulties for all 300, 000 Australian children starting preschool each year.
The TALI Detect tool is the next creation from Dr Hannah Kirk and Professor Kim Cornish, who previously invented the TALI Train program. TALI Train™ is the first interactive attention training program demonstrated to improve attention and learning in children with developmental disorders. The current project will leverage off the research team’s previous success in product development and research translation.
The project is a collaborative effort between MICCN, Disney game developer of the year, Torus Games, and medical technology company, TALI Health. The team, led by Dr Kirk and Professor Cornish, were awarded a Cooperative Research Centres Project grant to bring this innovative idea to fruition. The tool itself is a series of interactive assessments of childhood attention skills that takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. It will provide parents and teachers with information about their child’s attention abilities and will give parents the opportunity to address any areas of concern prior to their child starting school or in the very early school years. The ability to strengthen attention early in development has been shown to significantly improve outcomes and reduce the overall negative impact of attention difficulties on areas such as learning, social development and emotional wellbeing.
Dr James Kean, a MICCN research fellow with 10 years’ of experience in the assessment of childhood attention, is coordinating the project. “This exciting project incorporates gaming technology to maximise child engagement and ensure no child ‘fails’, even as it detects for attention difficulties” explained Dr Kean. “With the help of families, schools, and this neuroscience-driven tool, we aim to transform childhood assessment to improve many young lives, and give children the best chance of acquiring a good education and a fulfilling life.”
It is envisaged that TALI Detect™ and TALI Train™ will one day work in unison, so that a broader range of the 400,000 Australian children who demonstrate poor attention capabilities a real chance of getting the help they need.
If you would like to be involved in the pilot trial for TALI Detect, or would like more information on the trial, please contact Dr James Kean on t: 03 9905 5481, e: james.kean@monash.edu.
Dr James Kean