SPARK is specifically designed for children and families receiving TF-CBT, but many of its games and activities can be used with children receiving other types of treatment. For example, the child safety game is not trauma-specific; the breathing animation, muscle relaxation audio clips, and mindfulness activity is similar to activities that clinicians do with many children; the feelings charades game, feelings identification, and cognitive coping games are applicable to a wide range of children’s mental health treatments; and the behavior management videos for parents are valuable for many families. Also, the homework component helps to track children’s between-session practice of many of these activities.
SPARK was developed for youth ages 5-18 and we have successfully used it with this age range. We have noticed that some clinicians feel that older teenagers may not be as receptive to some of the activities, but please know that we had several older adolescents on our advisory boards from high schools who helped to guide our decisions when creating these activities and that many older adolescents have liked the activities much more than providers expect. Give it a try!
Yes, there are several tools in SPARK that were created specifically for providers to help them deliver TF-CBT. Each chapter has a teal “Prepare For Session” button that will give you tips and refresh your memory about key activities in each TF-CBT component. Many SPARK screens also have a gray “Provider” pull-down tab that gives you education, tips, hints, and reminders to help you complete SPARK activities with families. An animated video also can be found at the beginning of each chapter to help to introduce the SPARK activity to the child. Finally, the SPARK toolkit houses numerous tutorials and videos to demonstrate use of SPARK with children and families in treatment.
SPARK was designed with flexibility in mind. Use your judgment and use it in whatever ways you feel will best serve your families. There is no “manual” for SPARK. For some children, it may make sense to use most of the activities. For others, it may make sense to use only a few of the activities. We trust that you will be thoughtful when making these decisions based on what will be most helpful to them.
Yes! You can edit certain aspects of the toolkit. In the Patient Dashboard section, you can edit each patient’s avatar skin color and you can add closed captioning to all videos. On the Provider Dashboard you can add, edit, activate, or delete cards and tips for the What do you Know? activity and the Enhancing Safety card game. Please note that these changes are made at the provider-level, meaning any changes you make will apply to ALL of the families you serve.
Yes, families can access some SPARK activities and videos at home if clinicians choose to make them available. Through the homework portal, clinicians now have the ability to "push" certain activities and videos to caregivers so that children can practice activities at home more easily (e.g., breathing activity, progressive muscle relaxation exercise) and caregivers can refresh their learning at home (e.g., parenting behavior management videos). Families' access to SPARK will be limited to specific activities and games/videos sent by their clinician — they will not have access to the full SPARK platform.
Absolutely – SPARK is telehealth compatible! Simply log on to the SPARK toolkit and share your desktop screen with your telehealth patients. Pro tip: some telehealth platforms (e.g., doxy.me) allow you to release control of your screen for patients to interact with the toolkit themselves.
Yes! The toolkit is designed to be saved each week for your patients so that you can stay up to date on your progress throughout treatment. Activities that can be saved and revisited have a “SAVE” button below the activity. Additionally, you can always visit the Homework page to save your progress!
The toolkit has undergone significant pilot testing with providers and families. We recently implemented and tested SPARK with more than 30 community agencies, 100 providers, and 250 children and found that SPARK improved children's engagement in treatment and providers' fidelity (adherence) to treatment! See the “Research” section of the website for a lot more information about this!
Unfortunately, the toolkit is only available in English. However, it is a priority to make this available in Spanish soon. Once we publish findings from our large study, we are hoping that this helps us obtain resources needed to do this.
SPARK is HIPAA compliant and does not require any data protected by HIPAA. Please do not enter patient information in the open-form fields. For example, in “Patient ID” we recommend using patient initials, an ID that you create, or a vague descriptor instead of a patient’s name. SPARK records only basic user data so that we can understand how the toolkit is being used, which tools are most popular, and so that we can characterize generally the population for which it is used.
The SPARK toolkit is managed and maintained by the Biomedical Informatics Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. This team has extensive experience safeguarding the security and integrity of electronic data. All data collected by the toolkit are housed on a secure server and located at MUSC in SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) 128-bit encrypted servers behind firewalls.
SPARK is compatible with any device that has access to the internet. It works best on a tablet (e.g., iPad) so that patients can use all components easily; however, if a tablet is unavailable, desktop and laptop computers work just fine for most of the activities. Do note that SPARK is a web-based platform and does require internet service or a data package.
Your username is the email address that you had when you signed up for SPARK. If you are unsure of this address, please email SPARKProgram@musc.edu to retrieve your username. To reset your password, go to the toolkit login page and click “Forgot your password” to reset your password.
Email us at SPARKProgram@musc.edu if you have additional questions.
The SPARK team is internationally recognized as experts in the development and evaluation of digital health resources. Find out how we can work together to deliver best practice treatment to children everywhere.