Kaur Isha, Kamel Rima, Sultanik Evan, Tan Jessica, Mazefsky Carla A, Brookman-Frazee Lauren, McPartland James C, Goodwin Matthew S, Pennington Jeffrey, Beidas Rinad S, Mandell David S, Nuske Heather J
Penn Center for Mental Health, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Alevio LLC, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Pediatr Psychol. 2025 Jan 1;50(1):129-140. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsae078.
KeepCalm is a digital mental health application, co-designed with community partners, that incorporates wearable biosensing with support for teams to address challenging behaviors and emotion dysregulation in children on the autism spectrum.
We followed a user-centered design framework. Before app development, we conducted design workshops, needs assessment interviews, a systematic review, and created an Expert Advisory Board. Once we had a working prototype, we recruited 73 participants to test and help improve the app across five testing cycles.
Participants rated the app across testing cycles as highly acceptable, appropriate, feasible, and with good usability. Qualitative data indicated that KeepCalm helped teachers (a) be aware of students' previously unrealized triggers, especially for nonspeaking students; (b) prevent behavioral episodes; (c) communicate with parents about behaviors/strategies; and (d) equipped parents with knowledge of strategies to use at home. We learned that in order to make the app acceptable and appropriate we needed to make the app enjoyable/easy to use and to focus development on novel features that augment teachers' skills (e.g., behavioral pattern and stress detection). We also learned about the importance of maximizing feasibility, through in-person app training/support especially regarding the wearable devices, and the importance of having aides involved.
Our findings have informed plans for wider-scale feasibility testing so that we may examine the determinants of implementation to inform adaptations and refinement, and gather preliminary efficacy data on KeepCalm's impact on reducing challenging behaviors and supporting emotion regulation in students on the autism spectrum.
KeepCalm是一款与社区合作伙伴共同设计的数字心理健康应用程序，它将可穿戴生物传感技术与团队支持相结合，以解决自闭症谱系儿童的挑战性行为和情绪失调问题。
我们遵循以用户为中心的设计框架。在应用程序开发之前，我们举办了设计研讨会、进行了需求评估访谈、开展了系统综述，并成立了专家咨询委员会。一旦有了工作原型，我们招募了73名参与者，在五个测试周期中对该应用程序进行测试并帮助改进。
参与者在各个测试周期中对该应用程序的评价都很高，认为其可接受、合适、可行且可用性良好。定性数据表明，KeepCalm帮助教师（a）了解学生以前未被意识到的触发因素，特别是对于不会说话的学生；（b）预防行为发作；（c）与家长就行为/策略进行沟通；（d）使家长了解在家中可使用的策略知识。我们了解到，为了使该应用程序可接受且合适，我们需要使其有趣/易于使用，并将开发重点放在增强教师技能的新颖功能上（例如行为模式和压力检测）。我们还了解到通过亲自进行应用程序培训/支持（特别是关于可穿戴设备）来最大化可行性的重要性，以及让助手参与的重要性。
我们的研究结果为更广泛的可行性测试计划提供了参考，以便我们可以研究实施的决定因素，为调整和完善提供依据，并收集关于KeepCalm对减少自闭症谱系学生的挑战性行为和支持情绪调节影响的初步疗效数据。
