Evaluating a Low-Cost Technology to Enable People with Intellectual Disability or Psychiatric Disorders to Initiate and Perform Functional Daily Activities.

People with intellectual disability or psychiatric disorders and cognitive dysfunctions may need assistive technology to maintain and improve their levels of functioning and independence. This study assessed a smartphone-based system to remind the user to initiate functional daily activities (e.g., setting a table for lunch) and perform them without the support of a caregiver. The system was evaluated through a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across two groups of participants. During the intervention sessions, the participants were provided with a system involving a Samsung Galaxy A3 smartphone fitted with the Easy Alarm YouTube application and audio files. The alarm served to remind the participant to carry out a planned activity. Following the reminder, the smartphone presented each of the step instructions preset for the activity. The data showed a statistically significant increase in the number of activities initiated independently from baseline to intervention for all participants. All participants also showed a significant increase in the number of activity steps correctly performed when supported by the smartphone. These results suggest that a low-cost system (i.e., smartphone) can be used to improve independence of people with intellectual disability or psychiatric disorders with cognitive dysfunctions.

Assistive technology to help persons in a minimally conscious state develop responding and stimulation control: Performance assessment and social rating.

BACKGROUND: Post-coma persons in a minimally conscious state (MCS) and with extensive motor impairment and lack of speech tend to be passive and isolated. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to (a) further assess a technology-aided approach for fostering MCS participants' responding and stimulation control and (b) carry out a social validation check about the approach. METHODS: Eight MCS participants were exposed to the aforementioned approach according to an ABAB design. The technology included optic, pressure or touch microswitches to monitor eyelid, hand or finger responses and a computer system that allowed those responses to produce brief periods of positive stimulation during the B (intervention) phases of the study. Eighty-four university psychology students and 42 care and health professionals were involved in the social validation check. RESULTS: The MCS participants showed clear increases in their response frequencies, thus producing increases in their levels of environmental stimulation input, during the B phases of the study. The students and care and health professionals involved in the social validation check rated the technology-aided approach more positively than a control condition in which stimulation was automatically presented to the participants. CONCLUSIONS: A technology-aided approach to foster responding and stimulation control in MCS persons may be effective and socially desirable.

EXTENDING THE ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY-AIDED PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT LEISURE AND COMMUNICATION IN PEOPLE WITH ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURY AND EXTENSIVE MULTIPLE DISABILITIES.

Intervention programs for people with acquired brain injury and extensive motor and communication impairment need to be diversified according to their characteristics and environment. These two studies assessed two technology-aided programs for supporting leisure (i.e., access to songs and videos) and communication (i.e., expressing needs and feelings and making requests) in six of those people. The three people participating in Study 1 did not possess speech but were able to understand spoken and written sentences. Their program presented leisure and communication options through written phrases appearing on the computer screen. The three people participating in Study 2 did not possess any speech and were unable to understand spoken or written language. Their program presented leisure and communication options through pictorial images. All participants relied on a simple microswitch response to enter the options and activate songs, videos, and communication messages. The data showed that the participants of both studies learned to use the program available to them and to engage in leisure and communication independently. The importance of using programs adapted to the participants and their environment was discussed.