Dr Lauren Powell
BSc (Hons), MSc, PhD, SFHEA
School of Education
Co-Director for the MSc Psychology and Education
+44 114 222 8179
Full contact details
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Research interests
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Lauren’s research interests focus on the psychoeducation of children and young people with neurodisabilities. She is also interested in the use of innovative co-design methodologies in the design of complex interventions for children and young people with neurodisabilities.
Recently, she has led the development of a psychoeducational resource for autistic children and young people in collaboration with the Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Derby and NIHR Children and Young People MedTech. This is available via the Sheffield Children’s hospital website.
She also provides consultancy on a project ‘Safety Nets’, which provides physical activity and psychoeducational interventions for children and young people with mental health difficulties across Yorkshire and other regions in the UK.
She has so led the development of a psychoeducational resource for young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and this resource is now being used by a number of NHS Trusts, schools and charities across the UK. This resource is endorsed by and available on the ADHD Foundation website.
Her previous systematic review work has included a focus on the effectiveness of existing psychoeducational interventions for children with ADHD, the level of evidence and suitability of available technologies for children and young people with ADHD to self manage their condition and more recently the effectiveness of interventions with psychoeducational components for autistic children, with the latter article submitted and under review.
She would love to supervise PhD students adopting predominantly qualitative methods in the following areas:
- Developing collaborations with those who are interested in developing psychoeducational resources and interventions for children and young people with neurodisabilities such as ADHD and Autism as well as the psychoeducational needs of parents/carers and teaching professionals.
- Exploring transitions of young people with neurodisabilities such as from primary to secondary school and from secondary school to higher education.
- Exploring the experiences of neurodiverse females.
- Exploring neurodisabilities in a positive light and working to reduce stigma in society through psychoeducation and celebrating neurodiversity.
- Exploring what motivates adults to seek a diagnosis of a neurodisability such as ADHD and autism.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- ‘Safety Nets’: a community based social prescribing intervention involving combined physical activity and psychoeducation for young people on mental health service waiting lists: a pilot service evaluation. Advances in Mental Health.
- Investigating the impact of at‐home learning on secondary school‐aged children with ADHD : a qualitative study. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs.
- The suitability and acceptability of a co-designed prototype psychoeducational activity book for seven- to eleven-year-olds with ADHD. Design for Health.
- The use of a smartphone app and an activity tracker to promote physical activity in the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease : randomized controlled feasibility study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 8(6). View this article in WRRO
- Effectiveness of Upper Limb Wearable Technology for Improving Activity and Participation in Adult Stroke Survivors: Systematic Review.. J Med Internet Res, 22(1), e15981. View this article in WRRO
- Using recurrent neural networks to compare movement patterns in ADHD and normally developing children based on acceleration signals from the wrist and ankle. Sensors, 19(13). View this article in WRRO
- Guideline development for technological interventions for children and young people to self-manage ADHD: A realist evaluation. Journal of Medical Internet Research. View this article in WRRO
- The effectiveness of group exercise for improving activity and participation in adult stroke survivors: a systematic review. Physiotherapy. View this article in WRRO
- Automatic Extraction and Detection of Characteristic Movement Patterns in Children with ADHD Based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Acceleration Images. Sensors, 11. View this article in WRRO
- Upper limb activity in chronic post-stroke survivors: A comparison of accelerometry data with the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 61, e187-e187.
- Making Telecare desirable rather than a last resort. Ageing and Society, 38(5), 926-953. View this article in WRRO
- Recruitment of older adults to three preventative lifestyle improvement studies. Trials, 19. View this article in WRRO
- What is the level of evidence for the use of currently available technologies in facilitating the self-management of difficulties associated with ADHD in children and young people? A systematic review. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. View this article in WRRO
- ADHD: Is There an App for That? A Suitability Assessment of Apps for the Parents of Children and Young People With ADHD. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 5(10). View this article in WRRO
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Is There an App for That? Suitability Assessment of Apps for Children and Young People With ADHD. Journal of mHealth and uHealth, 5(10). View this article in WRRO
- A preventative lifestyle intervention for older adults (lifestyle matters): a randomised controlled trial. Age And Ageing, 46, 627-634. View this article in WRRO
- Identification of walking strategies of people with osteoarthritis of the knee using insole pressure sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 17(12), 3909-3920. View this article in WRRO
- Sensor optimization in smart insoles for post-stroke gait asymmetries using total variation and L1 distances. IEEE Sensors Journal, 17(10), 3142-3151. View this article in WRRO
- Involving Users in the Evaluation of Apps for Specific Health Conditions. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 242, 646-653. View this article in WRRO
- The Effectiveness of Lower-Limb Wearable Technology for Improving Activity and Participation in Adult Stroke Survivors: A Systematic Review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 18(10). View this article in WRRO
- Identification of walking strategies of people with osteoarthritis of the knee using insole pressure sensors. Sensors. View this article in WRRO
- Addressing design and suitability barriers to Telecare use: Has anything changed?. Technology and Disability, 26(4), 221-235. View this article in WRRO
- Are you ‘Ready, Steady, Go?’: Development of a telehealth implementation toolkit. International Journal of Integrated Care, 13(7).
- Psychoeducation intervention effectiveness to improve social skills in young people with ADHD: a meta-analysis. Journal of Attention Disorders.
- The co-design of a psychoeducational tool for children and young people with ADHD. Design4Health. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Safety Nets’: a community based social prescribing intervention involving combined physical activity and psychoeducation for young people on mental health service waiting lists: a pilot service evaluation. Advances in Mental Health.
- Teaching interests
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Lauren is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and teaches across the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the School of Education including the BA Education, Culture and Childhood, MA Education and MSc in Psychology and Education (Conversion). She is the module lead for the undergraduate module 'Child Psychology' (EDU107), the MSc module in qualitative research methods (EDU6167) and the MSc dissertation module (EDU6197). Lauren's teaching in the School mainly focuses on child psychology, psychoeducation, research methods and paediatric neurodisabilities with a focus on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
- Professional activities and memberships
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- School of Education Chair of Ethics
- Co-Director for the Msc Psychology and Education (Conversion) Programme
- Lauren is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- Research Cluster lead for the School of Education's Education and Psychology Research Cluster.
- Member of the editorial board for the British Journal of Educational Technology 2019-2023
- Member of the editorial board for Frontiers in Public Mental Health
- External examiner for Bournemouth University's MSc Health Research
- External examiner for Cardiff Metropolitan University MSc Psychological Research and MSc Health Research
- Member of the iHuman group