INFO FOR patient / parent / CAREGIVER

Why use Sparky™?

Asthma is the #1 chronic condition affecting children in the world.  In the preschool age group, many children experience Asthma or other lung conditions for the first time. Sparky has been designed for Children 2-6 but can be used for children up to 12 years of age. 

When your child suffers from a lung condition, the feelings of being unable to breathe are very unpleasant and may cause high anxiety levels

To diagnose Asthma and other lung conditions, healthcare providers use Spirometry and other tests, collectively referred to as Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs), to understand how well the lungs are functioning.  Complete PFTs are available in Pulmonary Function Labs, which are not easily accessible to over 95% of the population.  For asthma diagnosis in  community care, a combination of Spirometry and clinical assessment is the standard of care and is typically used.

At a young age, children are unable to understand certain concepts. For example, most children are only able to learn to read an analog clock at the age of 6. When a 3-year-old is told they will get a treat in 10 minutes, they understand “treat”, but not “10 min”. Similarly, young children do not understand concepts like  “inhale deep” and “blow out forcefully”. Hence, a study has shown that only 54% of 4–5-year-olds were able to perform acceptable and repeatable spirometry according to American Thoracic Society guidelines, typically after substantive coaching with a healthcare professional. 

To overcome this inability of young children to complete Spirometry, we have designed a breathing-powered interactive game that makes use of the “intuitive abilities” of children to play games. As many parents will recognize, children love tablet games, and some start playing when they are quite young.

The game was designed by researchers and game designers with young children, considering their physical and brain development.  It breaks down the breathing movements needed to do Spirometry so they easily learn without even knowing that they are learning or that their lung function is being measured. All based on the natural intuition of young children.

For parents, caregivers and clinicians, a dashboard allows you to view the measures, even if you’re not in the same location.

If your child has an Asthma Action Plan in place, their clinician will have given you instructions on what action to take if certain measures are reached or if you see specific symptoms. If needed, this information can be sent via PDF to their clinician. 

Clinicians also have the option to subscribe to the dashboards and view test results and historic data directly and intervene to avoid exacerbations as they deem needed. 

The key benefits are:

• Enabling a large proportion of young children who cannot do spirometry, to do it via a game
• perform a Spirometry test to monitor regularly and when your child feels ill, short of breadth or anxious or as their clinician directs you.
• Ability to inform your healthcare provider immediately with objective information about your child’s lung function.
• You can intervene early with your child’s Asthma Action Plan or provide objective lung function measures to your child’s a healthcare provider to intervene. 
• Proactive early intervention may mean the difference between keeping your child well and experiencing an asthma attack.