The trial recruited 152 teens (16–19 years of age) with a diagnosis of ADHD who were randomly assigned to complete five sessions of a control driver’s education program or to the Enhanced Focused Concentration and Attention Learning (FOCAL+) intervention. FOCAL+ uses simulator training and eye-tracking glasses with auditory feedback whenever long glances or lane variations occur during driving. Outcomes of the trial included the total number of long glances (≥2 seconds) away from the roadway during a simulated driving task at 1 and 6 months after training, and the number of real-world collisions and near-collisions recorded in-vehicle for the following year. According to Jeffery Epstein, lead author, “This intervention significantly reduced long eye glances from the roadway, both during simulated driving and real-world driving. We were able to assess real-world driving because we put cameras in all of these kids’ cars for a full year after the intervention to see what their eye glance behavior was like. We saw a very significant decrease in the number of long eye glances away from the roadway in those adolescents with ADHD [who] got assigned to the intervention group, compared to those who got assigned to the regular driver’s training group.” In addition, in the year after the training, the rate of collisions and near-collisions in the FOCAL+ intervention group was nearly 40% less than that of the control group.
With the potential for improving real-world driving safety behavior, the FOCAL+ intervention could represent the road ahead for driver training for teens with ADHD. The potential benefits extend to parents and the community as well. As Epstein concludes, “Adolescents with ADHD are some of the highest risk drivers we have on the roadways today, and up to this point we haven’t had interventions that have been shown to decrease their driving risk. I want this intervention to spread and for teens to have access to this with the goal being that it will save lives.”
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