The MyoAssist, developed by parents of nearsighted children, tracks outdoor time to help with effective nearsightedness management.
 "Can I go out for some outdoor time?" my son inquired on a chilly afternoon towards the end of December last year.
To manage his nearsightedness (myopia), my son incorporates more outdoor activities into his lifestyle as a means of managing the condition more effectively. Numerous studies highlight the beneficial effects of spending time outdoors in preventing the development of nearsightedness.1 Recent research further indicates that outdoor activities are not only effective in slowing the worsening of nearsightedness but also may enhance the efficacy of treatments aimed at controlling myopia.1,2
Yet, urging their kids to venture outside, especially on cold days, can be challenging. The allure of a cozy indoor environment, video games, and television acts like a magnet, keeping them inside. Therefore, a simple, self-motivated request to play outside from their kids, particularly on a cold day, is music to many parents' ears.
Recognizing the crucial role of outdoor activities, I've actively sought ways to motivate my son to spend more time outside. Today, I want to introduce you to a new outdoor time tracker app designed to assist in managing nearsightedness—the MyoAssistTM app. I also want to discuss how it has inspired my son to seek outdoor time proactively.
MyoAssist: understanding its design and purpose
The MyoAssist app has been developed based on valuable insights gathered from parents of children with nearsightedness. Through this collaborative process, we identified specific areas where parents expressed the need for an app to assist children in managing nearsightedness.
After a comprehensive exploration of development feasibility, existing solutions, associated costs, and time constraints, we prioritized the creation of an outdoor time tracker.
Over a span of six months, which included rounds of alpha and beta testing with volunteers from our myopia support group, we refined the design and dashboards. Our goal was to ensure a balance of simplicity with powerful functionalities that cater to the specific needs of parents.
The app has been designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. It simplifies the input while concurrently providing valuable insights. Featuring a child-friendly and easy-to-use interface, it offers a clear overview of the status of outdoor time, empowering parents and children to stay well-informed.
MyoAssist introduces an outdoor-time-goals feature and also provides a progress status. A virtual badge serves as a motivational tool for conditioned learning, encouraging children to make efforts to achieve it.
A notable convenience of MyoAssist is its multiple-device access functionality. Parents and their children can sign in to an account on different devices. This allows children to log their outdoor time, while parents can assess their status anytime and actively engage in discussions on how to support their children in achieving their goals.
MyoAssist is also accessible across Android /iOS smartphones and tablets, ensuring that as long as you have internet access, the tool is readily available at your fingertips.
MyoAssist at work: our personal journey
Now, let’s discuss my experience using the MyoAssist app and how it changed my approach to encouraging outdoor activities for my son.
Since the first prototype, my son and I would engage in discussions to establish practical outdoor goals and rewards each month. To facilitate this, we would input the goal of the month into the app. The app then offered the time needed to achieve our set goal each day for easy reference. For instance, in January, with shorter winter daylight hours, our target was 45 hours for the month, approximately 87 minutes per day. This approach enabled us to tailor his goal, considering factors like daylight duration and his activity schedule.
On a daily basis, my son would log the time he spent outdoors using his iPad or Chromebook. Occasionally, I would pass my smartphone if he didn't have his devices handy. Convenience drives input adherence.
Subsequently, I would check his progress against the goal on my smartphone. While my son was generally truthful with his inputs, occasional attempts to add an extra five to ten minutes did occur. Given that my main emphasis was to promote more outdoor time rather than input accuracy, I used them as opportunities to chat about his activities and discuss future outdoor fun.
Before initiating the app's development, I questioned whether a mobile app would make sense, given that close-up work on hand-held device screens is a risk factor for nearsightedness. My doubts were relieved after the first week of using it.
We previously relied on a paper-based outdoor time tracker, which is also a form of close-up work. The paper-based tracker took my son about five minutes to log his outdoor time of the day and tally up his progress. Â Using the app, it merely took seconds for my son to log the time, and the app automatically performed progress calculations. Overviews of the time accumulated for the past seven days and the monthly progress versus the goal were available immediately.
The goal-setting feature was particularly valuable, especially during winter. At the end of last December, my son proactively asked if he could go out instead of staying inside the house. He realized he was a few hours short before getting his reward. He actively "worked" to bank his time. The virtual badge served as positive reinforcement for achieving his goal and signaled it was time for his reward, resembling Pavlovian conditioned learning.
The record page also featured a current progress chart that was helpful. It illustrated the trend of outdoor time over the past few weeks, and detailed daily records are also available below. In instances where more than two hours were logged, they were highlighted in green, serving as additional positive reinforcement.
**As of February 20, 2024, a new feature was added: the stopwatch. My son and I are thrilled with this addition. It significantly enhances our ability to accurately and conveniently track our total outdoor time. Operating like a traditional stopwatch, you can initiate the timer by tapping "start" and conclude it by tapping "end" upon completion. This allows us to accumulate time for various activities throughout the day. Finally, at day's end, we can easily log the daily total within the app. Â
In sum, the MyoAssist app significantly improved my discussions with my son about the status of his outdoor time. The combination of goal setting, pre-agreed rewards, and regular discussions was proven effective. Compared to paper-based tracking methods, my son spent less time, yet we gained more insights and had more meaningful discussions about fun outdoor activities for the future.
How to download and get started with MyoAssist?
To get started, you can download the MyoAssist app from the following links:
Once you've downloaded the app, the sign-in page will guide you. If you're a new user, simply click on "go to create account" at the bottom to set up a new account.
The app features four main screens:
1.   Myopia Outdoor Tracker: This page showcases the outdoor time performance of the last seven days. You can enter today's outdoor time at the bottom. The design is geared towards motivating children, featuring a 7-day progress bar that increments with each day's updates. If the total time in the past 7 days is less than 8 hours, the bar changes to yellow, serving as a visual cue for attention.
2.   Outdoor Time Goal: You can set your child’s outdoor time goals here. The dashboard displayed the goal in hours and estimated outdoor time per day in minutes for easier understanding. It calculates the time completed and the time remaining. Achieving your goal will reveal the virtual badge. (Tip & hack: You can set the goal period to view the total time logged for a specific period, i.e., the half or full-year outdoor time logged).
3.   Outdoor Time Record: This page includes a line chart displaying current trends. Daily outdoor time records are at the bottom, with options to add, edit, or delete entries. Please be aware that once a record is deleted, it is permanently deleted.
**3.   Stopwatch (New feature - Feb.10): Your child can now keep track of their outdoor time with the Stopwatch feature. Simply start the timer as they head out the door, and upon return, clicking the stop button reveals the duration of their outdoor activity. They can then add this to a daily total. At the day's end, your child can add the accumulated daily total by tapping the "add entry" button, making it a breeze.
5.   Systems: For parents with multiple kids, you can create one account for each child. You can log out from the current user by clicking on "log out." If you decide MyoAssist isn't suitable for you, you can delete your account, though keep in mind that data deletion from the server takes some time. Once an account is deleted with its records, they are permanently deleted.
Final words
The MyoAssist is designed and developed by parents of children with nearsightedness with the aim of providing a valuable tool to help children manage their condition more effectively.
On the other hand, creating and maintaining an app is costly -- the development of the app itself, the ongoing expenses related to backend servers, and the presence on the app store. The incorporation of advertising within the app serves the purpose of offsetting these associated expenses.
Your support is paramount. If you find the MyoAssist app beneficial, we encourage you to share this article or the app itself with a broader audience. By doing so, you not only help more parents facing similar challenges but also contribute to the sustainability of this valuable resource.
Thank you for being a part of our journey in supporting children with nearsightedness.
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