A Writing Program with Word Prediction for a Young Man with Multiple Disabilities: A Preliminary Assessment

Helping persons with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease recapture basic daily activities through the use of an instruction strategy

PURPOSE

The present three pilot studies assessed the effectiveness of verbal instructions, presented automatically through simple technology, in helping persons with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease recapture basic daily activities. The activities were morning bathroom routine, dressing, and table-setting.

METHOD

The studies that focused on morning bathroom routine and on table-setting included three participants each, while the study that focused on dressing involved four participants. A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used for each study. The instructions and technology were available only during the intervention phases.

RESULTS

Data showed that the intervention strategy involving verbal instructions for the single activity steps presented automatically through technology was effective in helping all participants on each of the activities. The participants' mean percentages of correct steps across activities raised from 13 - 54 during the baseline periods to above 80 or 90 during the intervention periods.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that the intervention strategy reported may represent a suitable approach for helping persons with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease to recapture basic daily activities. New research should target other activities and check maintenance and generalization issues.

Enabling a young man with minimal motor behavior to manage independently his leisure television engagement

Persons with severe spastic tetraparesis and minimal motor behavior may be confined to a wheelchair or bed and have virtually no chances of constructive engagement with their immediate environment. A possible way to modify this situation may involve the use of technology. The present study (a) assessed specific technology to enable a young adult to manage his leisure television engagement independently and (b) carried out a social validation assessment of the technology-supported performance involving 90 teacher trainees as raters. The intervention period with the new technology included 67 sessions, during which the participant performed independently 392 of the 408 television-management responses, i.e., turning on the television, finding a channel with a preferred program, setting the volume, and turning off the television. He also indicated preference for using the technology as opposed to not using it. The raters provided relatively high (positive) scores for the technology-supported performance compared to the baseline performance. Implications of the findings are discussed.