Abstract
BackgroundPersons with severe or profound intellectual disability and visual impairment tend to be passive and sedentary, and technology-aided intervention may be required to improve their condition without excessive demands on staff time.ObjectiveThis study aims to extend the assessment of technology-aided interventions for supporting functional occupational engagement and mobility in 7 people with intellectual disability and visual impairment and to use a technology system that is simpler and less expensive than those previously used.MethodsThe technology system involved a Samsung Galaxy A10, 4 Philips Hue indoor motion sensors, and 4 mini speakers. Within each session, the participants were to collect 18 objects (ie, one at a time) from 3 different areas (stations) located within a large room, bring each of the objects to a central desk, and put away each of those objects there. For each object, the participants received verbal (spatial) cues for guiding them to the area where the object was to be collected, a verbal instruction (ie, request) to take an object, verbal (spatial) cues for guiding them to the central desk, a verbal instruction to put away the object collected, and praise and preferred stimulation.ResultsDuring baseline, the frequency of responses completed correctly (objects collected and put away independently) was 0 or near 0. During the intervention phase (ie, with the support of the technology setup), the frequency increased for all participants, reaching a mean of almost 18 (out of 18 response opportunities) for 6 participants and about 13 for the remaining participant. The mean session duration ranged from 12 to 30 minutes.ConclusionsA program, such as the one used in this study, can be useful in promoting occupational engagement and mobility in persons with intellectual disability and visual impairment.
Highlights
BackgroundPeople with severe to profound intellectual disability tend to be passive and sedentary when not provided with direct supervision from staff or caregivers [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The technology at the basis of this intervention strategy was expressly built for the study and included (1) electronic boxes with optic sensors used for presenting spatial cues, detecting the participant’s arrival, and delivering preferred stimulation and (2) a remote electronic control unit used to regulate the functioning of the boxes and sensors
This study was conceived as a systematic replication effort whose main purpose was to (1) extend the assessment of technology-aided strategies to support independent functional occupation and mobility in people with intellectual disability and visual impairment, and (2) evaluate a relatively simple, commercially based technology system, which would be cheaper and more accessible than the systems used for the aforementioned strategies
Summary
BackgroundPeople with severe to profound intellectual disability tend to be passive and sedentary when not provided with direct supervision from staff or caregivers [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Passivity and sedentariness may become even more serious when people present with a combination of intellectual disability and visual impairment [7,8,9,10,11,12] To modify this negative situation, efforts are required to design intervention strategies suitable for promoting occupational engagement and mobility (ie, indoor walking), that is, for (1) providing people with a chance of meaningful actions and (2) increasing their opportunities for physical exercise and environmental stimulation [13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. Persons with severe or profound intellectual disability and visual impairment tend to be passive and sedentary, and technology-aided intervention may be required to improve their condition without excessive demands on staff time. Conclusions: A program, such as the one used in this study, can be useful in promoting occupational engagement and mobility in persons with intellectual disability and visual impairment
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