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.

Microswitch-based programs for persons with multiple disabilities: an overview of some recent developments.

Persons with multiple disabilities are often unable to interact with their environment due to their limited response repertoire. Microswitch programs are designed to help them control environmental events, generally preferred stimulation, through simple (feasible) responses. To make microswitch programs a more widely usable and relevant resource for intervention with these persons, a number of new developments were pursued in recent years.

A microswitch-cluster program to foster adaptive responses and head control in students with multiple disabilities: replication and validation assessment.

A program relying on microswitch clusters (i.e., combinations of microswitches) and preferred stimuli was recently developed to foster adaptive responses and head control in persons with multiple disabilities.

Effects of microswitch-based programs on indices of happiness of students with multiple disabilities: a new research evaluation.

The effects of microswitch-based programs on indices of happiness were evaluated with 9 students who had profound multiple disabilities. Each student received an ABAB sequence in which A represented baseline phases and B, intervention phases. During the latter phases, microswitches were used to enable the students to control preferred environmental stimulation with simple/feasible responses, such as hand-pushing and foot-lifting.

Extending the evaluation of novel microswitch technology for small responses in children with profound multiple disabilities.

This study extended the evaluation of microswitch technology (i.e., a position sensor and an optic device), recently introduced for chin and eyelid responses, with two new participants with profound multiple disabilities.

Children with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior using chin movements to operate microswitches to obtain environmental stimulation.

In these two studies, two children with multiple disabilities and minimal motor behavior were assessed to see if they could use chin movements to operate microswitches to obtain environmental stimulation. In Study I, we applied an adapted version of a recently introduced electronic microswitch [Lancioni, G. E.