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


METHODS
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.
Lancioni
Giulio E
GE
University of Bari, Bari, Italy. g.lancioni@psico.uniba.it
Pinto
Katia
K
La Martire
Maria L
ML
Tota
Alessia
A
Rigante
Valeria
V
Tatulli
Emanuela
E
Pansini
Elisabetta
E
Minervini
Mauro G
MG
Singh
Nirbhay N
NN
O'Reilly
Mark F
MF
Sigafoos
Jeff
J
Oliva
Doretta
D
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008838:Microcomputers; D010865:Pilot Projects; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome