Persons With Multiple Disabilities Select Environmental Stimuli Through a Smile Response Monitored via Camera-Based Technology
By Lancioni, Giulio E.; Bellini, Domenico; Oliva, Doretta; Singh, Nirbhay N.; O'Reilly, Mark F.; Lang, Russell; Didden, Robert; Bosco, Andrea; Developmental Neurorehabilitation, Volume 14, Number 5, pages 267-273Publication Date: October 2011
Study assessed whether persons with multiple disabilities could use smile expressions and new camera based microswitch technology to select environmental stimuli. A 20 year old male and a 14 year old female participant, both with severe multiple disabilities, took part in the study. The microswitch technology for the smile response consisted of a computer with a CPU using a 2 gigahertz clock, a USB video camera, a USB cable connecting the camera and the computer, and a special software program. Color markers were used to place spots on participants’ cheeks to facilitate the camera and computer’s response identification. Selection of participants’ preferred stimuli, such as music and familiar voices, was based on parent and staff recommendations followed by stimulus preference screening. Non-preferred stimuli selected based on participants’ absence of smiles included distorted sounds and blurred songs. Participants were seated in their wheelchair during intervention. Within each session, the computer system provided samples and reminders of the preferred and non-preferred stimuli. The microswitch determined whether participants had smile expressions in relation to those samples. If they did, stimuli matching the samples to which they responded were presented for 20 seconds. The smile expression could be profitably used by participants, who managed to select means of about 70 to 75 percent of the stimulus opportunities made available by the environment while avoiding almost all the non-preferred stimulus opportunities.
Published by: Informa Healthcare (Website:http://www.informa.com/)
Link to text: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/full/10.3109/17518423.2011.584605
