Introduction:

Our ultimate goal is to design a mobile-device product that provides remote Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, an anxiety disorder in which one experiences unwanted obsessive thoughts or compulsive repetitive behaviors that significantly interfere with one’s life.

The final product realization will implement a distance therapy program that
incorporates the currently established best practices of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for children with OCD while utilizing the advantages afforded by mobile technology. (These include: ubiquity of access to therapy, technology children are familiar with and may be excited about, enhanced retention rates of therapy, therapy in context and on demand, interactive gaming elements & data storage, etc.)

To this end, we have chosen as the subject of our initial design review a related therapeutic product: The “Cool Kids Program” workbook (Lyneham,et. al.2003), a workbook designed to help children overcome anxiety through a manualized remote CBT program.

In addition we have performed feature reviews on several mobile device-based interactive products that will inform the implementation of features of our future product. In an effort to expand our sense of possible uses for mobile devices, we are focusing on interactions that a mobile phone affords that are not currently available to traditional phone therapy systems.