UC Berkeley

Evidence-based ADHD interventions such as self-monitoring are scarcely used by educators,especially those teaching in secondary schools (Sibley et al., 2016). Common barriers to intervention use include restricted time, poor knowledge of ADHD, and feelings of frustration and stress associated with teaching students with ADHD (Szép, 2021). Because barriers are often related to stimuli and events that result in increased mental effort, one theoretical lens through which such barriers can be understood is cognitive load. Therefore, in the present research, I used cognitive load theory as a framework to guide the design of a novel, computerbased, self-monitoring intervention intended to reduce barriers to teachers’ intervention use. The purpose was (a) to evaluate the cognitive load experienced by teachers when implementing a self-monitoring intervention, and (b) to explore teachers’ acceptability of the novel, computer-based self-monitoring intervention. To this end, secondary school teachers from the United States read a vignette description of an adolescent with ADHD and were subsequently randomly presented with one of two self-monitoring intervention modalities— computer-based or paper-and-pencil based—to support the student. Then, participants completed rating scales that assessed their likelihood of intervention use and perceived cognitive load associated with the intervention procedures. 336 participants met eligibility criteria to participate, but only 89 were included in the final analysis after listwise deletion of cases that failed to pass the validity check for adequate engagement with the intervention and vignette. Participants’ acceptability ratings for both the computer-based intervention and analog intervention were favorable, and ratings for the computer-based intervention were somewhat higher than their ratings for the analog intervention. However, the difference was not practically significant. Limitations and future directions are discussed.