Extending Attention Span for Children ADHD using an Attentive Visual Interface

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common developmental disorder usually accompanying other developmental disorders including speech, language and reading. Children with ADHD tend to lose attention after a short period of time. Extending the attention span for those children could help them do better in school and in life. The aim of this work is to assess the role of text color (highlighting, contrast, sharpening) on the attention of children with ADHD while they are reading. Attention is tracked via the two modalities of webcam and mouse as some ADHD children have difficulties in maintaining the calibration of webcam. Visual color schemes are modified to evaluate different ways of maintaining attention. The results reveal that: (a) all color schemes have a significant effect on attention span, (b) highlighting has the greatest effect regardless of tracking modality, and (c) the degree of effect is subject to the tracking modality.