Have you ever worked with a child and he just went out of control- running around, not paying attention, or just completely spaced out? Children with ADHD, Autism, and Sensory Processing Disorder can struggle with this daily. Many of these children I worked with could not go into a regular classroom as they would just "act out". As you can imagine their behavior can devastate their self confidence and social life.
For my Master Thesis, I measured 85 hours of Electrodermal Activity on both the child and therapist during hour long therapy sessions. While, I am still analyzing the data, initial results show that some activities (in this picture swinging) are effective in lowering the child's arousal. While this coincides with therapist's theories, this evidence can be shown to parents and teachers to help them understand how our behavior is linked to our internal state which can be controlled in fun ways.
The research I have done so far was included in the application for Sensory Processing Disorder to be a part of the DSM IV.
I worked closely with Dr. Lucy J. Miller and 5 amazing interns over the Summer of 2009 to make this project work.