Visual and audio cues support a daily routine

Situation

Luciana is a young woman in her early 20s who has autism and a mild intellectual disability. She lives with her mother and works part-time two days a week, as well as volunteering weekly.

While Luciana manages most of her self-care independently, she faces challenges organising her time, following through on activities, and remembering appointments. These difficulties increased when she left the structured school environment and moved to a new house.

Luciana's sleep patterns are irregular. She often stays up late, engrossed in her phone and social media, and sleeps in the next day. This habit interferes with her getting necessary things done during the day.

Luciana was using a whiteboard in her room to keep track of her obligations, which she updated weekly with help from her support worker. This system wasn't always effective, though, as she sometimes forgot to check it, or tasks were erased before they were completed.

Luciana enjoys using technology, particularly her smartphone, but she recognises it can distract her from completing other important activities. Recognising this, Luciana and her mother reached out to Stretchy Tech to explore how assistive technology might help her become more organised and independent.

Luciana’s goal was to find a technological solution to help her manage her time, remember her appointments and tasks, and establish a more consistent daily routine, including a regular sleep schedule. With the right tools, Luciana hoped she could gain more control of her daily schedule and continue to grow her independence, while still enjoying the benefits of modern technology.

Solution

After assessing Luciana's needs, the Stretchy Tech occupational therapist (OT) recommended a solution using smart home technology.

The main component of the proposed solution was a Google Hub Max smart speaker for Luciana's room. This device would help Luciana manage her schedule by displaying a shared online calendar, providing morning updates about her daily activities, and giving reminders for appointments and tasks. It would also establish a sleep routine with the help of a scheduled wind down period, during which calming music and podcasts would be played at bedtime. Complementing the smart speaker, a Wi-Fi coloured light bulb was recommended for Luciana's bedside lamp. This light would work with the smart speaker to create visual cues for different times of day, helping to reinforce her routines.

Custom programming was recommended by the Stretchy Tech Smart Device Specialist to configure the Google Calendar, set up custom announcements, automate the light settings, and establish Google Tasks for managing Luciana's chores and activities.

This system was designed to provide Luciana with both visual and audio cues to support a consistent daily routine. By using technology that Luciana is already familiar with, the solution aimed to make managing her time and tasks more accessible.

Outcome

Luciana was engaged and enthusiastic about the technology recommendations. She was actively involved in the set-up process and demonstrated good skills in updating and checking her calendar entries using Google voice commands.

Initial feedback indicated that the visual and audio cues were effective in helping her to establish a routine. Luciana is committed to this solution and continues to tweak some of the programming and has been experimenting with the lighting, announcements and timing to maximise effectiveness. Importantly, Luciana is using the same technology as other young people.

Was there anything that didn't go to plan? How was this overcome?

A follow up visit was conducted to review Luciana's new routines after several months of use. Luciana reported to us that she found the coloured lighting cues very helpful in assisting to establish new routines. Whilst the audio announcements had initially been helpful, she found the number of reminders overwhelming and after a period of time these announcements were less impactful. The high number of audio announcements became background noise for Luciana. After a discussion about prioritising goals a decision was made to pair back these announcements to only two important reminders each day. This strategy of 'less is more’ was more successful for Luciana.

Summary pointers for OTs, technicians, and the intended user (person with disability)

1. The technology described above has worked well for Luciana, so we think it’s worth consideration by OTs, technicians, and persons with disability, in similar situations.
2. Review of technology use after initial set up is really important to ensure successful use and reduce AT abandonment by the user. In this example the solution needed to be tweaked to ensure Luciana’s continued use of the AT solutions.