Maria Acenas’ Presentation on Let's Connect

Volunteer and older adult participant engage with tablet during a Let’s Connect session

If you didn’t get a chance to hear the great talks by our lab members during last week’s RRI Conference, no worries! Read more about Maria’s presentation on the Let’s Connect project below.

Who & What?

While interest in using touchscreen tablets with people with dementia is growing, little is known about the benefits of staff and volunteer-led tablet programs, particularly with regards to fostering the independence of people with dementia. The Let’s Connect study set out to train staff and volunteers to introduce tablets to people with dementia and examine the impact on their independence. This three-year-long study took place at adult day programs and long-term care facilities and included older individuals with various cognitive impairments.

How?

Video recordings were analyzed for behaviours to examine the amount of support and prompting provided by staff or volunteers and encouragement of independence.

Findings

Overall, the data showed that the number of prompts and support provided by staff and volunteers decreased. This suggested that staff and volunteers recognized client’s improvement and confidence in their tablet game skills over multiple sessions and therefore decreased the need to constantly encourage and motivate clients to continue playing. Collectively, these results indicate that staff and volunteers fostered the independence of clients with dementia to use the tablets. These results demonstrate that the right guidance from staff or volunteers can empower clients to independently play tablet games.