Unlocking secrets of ADHD in early childhood

Professor Sam Wass, leader of the University of East London’s pioneering BabyDevLab, has launched a research programme aimed at unravelling the early signs of ADHD symptoms in babies and children.

The new three-year programme comes after the Medical Research Council handed out £ 2.4 million in grants to three studies to identify people at risk from the condition, enabling doctors to intervene at an earlier stage.

ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – is a condition that can leave people seeming restless. They have trouble concentrating and may act on impulse.

Professor Wass and his team from the School of Psychology will examine signs of emotional distress in infants and whether these indicators can predict a susceptibility to ADHD. The study will particularly look at children living in cities who are exposed to high-stress levels.

Using wearable technology to monitor heart rate and stress levels, along with cameras to track mood, researchers will offer real-time feedback to parents. The aim is to promote habits that will tackle “stress contagion” where a parent and child feed off each other’s moods.

Professor Sam Wass said, 

Our goal is to contribute to early identification and intervention strategies for ADHD, focusing on the critical period of one to two years old. By studying the interaction between a child and its parent, we can start to identify the very early development of symptoms that might flag early warning signs. And the earlier you can identify a problem, the earlier a diagnosis and some of the negative impacts can be reduced.

Professor Wass's research will focus on unravelling the keys to ADHD development in high-stress urban environments, particularly in East London. Previous findings indicate elevated stress levels in children in these areas, prompting researchers to take a closer look at the intricate interplay between environment and genetics.

The study will employ innovative methods pioneered by the BabyDevLab, including free interaction data and home wearable technology. By observing parent-child interactions and their impact on ADHD development, Professor Wass is seeking to find behaviours and responses that might be early warning signs.  

When detected, these warning signs are immediately flagged to parents, so they can address behaviours in real-time to de-escalate the situation.

Professor Wass said, “A lot of early concentration happens in a joint context and the parent-child interaction is an important driver of attention development in a child.”

Monitoring will include microphones to check noise levels, an important indicator of stress, and cameras that focus on faces to capture mood.

The research will track babies from one to two years old, a critical stage in attention development. The goal is to identify early warning signs of ADHD before the conventional diagnosis age of six, setting the stage for more effective and timely interventions.

The study goes beyond ADHD, emphasising that the intervention strategies developed benefit all children. Positive parenting practices, identified through the research, offer a universal approach to creating healthier parent-child relationships.

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