Saw an opportunity to help misunderstood kids

“ADHD is always a very interesting topic and kids with ADHD are such great kids, but they are often misunderstood.” So says Dagmar Kr. Hannesdóttir, assistant professor at the UI Faculty of Psychology, the principal investigator of a study that began this January  at the Children’s Mental Health Centre for the Primary Health Care of the Capital Area, aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of a group program and individual counselling sessions for children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). 

Dagmar studied clinical child psychology in the US and graduated with a PhD in 2007. She began her career at the Centre for Child Development and Behaviour where she noticed a lack of resources for children with ADHD. In response, she began developing a research-based programme for Icelandic children. Dagmar has now been working for over a decade to develop resources for children with ADHD. 

“When these children are forgetful or struggle to follow instructions, people don’t see their strengths. Most teachers and parents find it challenging to direct them in day-to-day activities, but it is also an opportunity. This programme is designed to work directly with the children in order to empower them and provide them with tools so they are better equipped to handle situations. It helps the children make changes so they don’t always need to rely on parents, teachers or other adults in school to step in.” 
 

Children develop tools either through a group programme or individual counselling 

The research team is offering two kinds of resources for children with ADHD aged 9-12, including hyperactive, inattentive and combined types. Some of the children also have comorbid disorders such as anxiety or oppositional defiance disorder. Resources like this are in great demand and the applications flooded in after the study was advertised, with all the spots filled in just one day. Thirty children will take part in the study, divided randomly into the group program and the individual counselling group. Master's students in clinical child psychology at UI will run both interventions. 

The group program is called The OutSMARTers program and is designed for groups of up to six children with ADHD. Two OutSMARTEer programs began in January, with classes twice a week for five weeks. The children receive training in managing emotions, social skills, problem solving and increased self-control. “The kids are given a folder with all kinds of exercises to complete. Some of them are games or role-playing exercises in which they practise certain responses. We try to deliver the education in a fun way that gets them to actively engage. Not just sitting and reading something off a whiteboard. Then of course there are also lots of group discussions,” explains Dagmar. 

The individual counselling initiative was launched alongside the OutSMARTers program and is called the Kid Counselling which twelve children will participate in individually. The children will meet a master´s student once a week for five consecutive weeks, who will teach them various strategies. Dagmar explains that the Kid Counselling sessions are similar in content to the OutSMARTers programme. The children are given a book to accompany their programme. They learn to change their approach to organizing things, e.g. how to tidy their rooms or how to remember their swimming kit. 

There is also a group of children on a waiting list for support. Six of these children will take the next series of The Kid Counselling programme, beginning in March. 
 

Comparing the interventions and exploring what suits each child 

Dagmar’s study will compare the two interventions. “One group will receive these lessons and training in a group, where they will be able to hear what the other kids say and practise situations together. The other group will receive lessons from a professional one-on-one, in an environment with fewer distractions, allowing them to concentrate. We will compare these interventions and see which is best suited to each child,” she explains. 

The research team also has the group on the waiting list as a control group. This will enable them to observe the differences between children who have received this support and those who haven’t. Outcomes will be measured using questionnaires and the team will monitor how the children, their parents and teachers experience any changes over time. 

Dagmar argues that it is important to develop initiatives like these for children in order to find out whether and how they work. Very little research is done in this area, because such studies are complex and time consuming. 

Interventions expected to be effective and may become more widespread and accessible 

Dagmar’s research is based on similar studies which have yielded positive findings suggesting that group programs and individual counselling sessions are both effective interventions for children with ADHD. She expects that her findings will support the findings of those previous studies. “Hopefully we will learn that the interventions are effective, that they help children with ADHD achieve better social skills, self-control and time management skills. We hope to see that the kids who have completed the programmes are better equipped in these areas than the kids on the waiting list. Then of course we will need to run more courses next year to learn more about certain subgroups and children with comorbid disorders,” she says, adding that she hopes this study will give us a good idea of which resources suit each child. 

The courses have sometimes been run in health clinics and universities, but they can also be provided within schools since they are simple to set up and implement. A professional psychologist is not necessarily needed. This means that professionals within schools could use Dagmar’s work to help children with ADHD. Dagmar believes that the interventions could potentially be rolled out to other places in Iceland and abroad. Resources for children with ADHD are desperately needed and the demand is incredibly high. We need to meet this demand and Dagmar hopes that her study will be a step in the right direction.

Author of the article: Guðríður Jóhannsdóttir, BA-student in journalism.