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Music stimulation is considered beneficial for people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this paper is to assess a tablet-based program to promote music-related hand responses and positive engagement (e.g. singing or moving the body with the music) in people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

The program was implemented with 20 participants according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The participants were provided with a tablet whose screen worked as a sensor. During the intervention, sensor activations by hand responses led the tablet to present 10 s segments of preferred songs; an absence of sensor activation led the tablet to produce a prompt.

The participants’ mean frequencies of hand responses (i.e. sensor activations) per 5 min session increased from mostly zero during baseline to between about 9 and 20 during the intervention. The mean percentages of observation intervals with participants’ positive engagement increased from 0 to 12 during the baseline to between 13 and 55 during the intervention. The differences between baseline and intervention data were statistically significant for all participants.

A tablet-based program, such as that used in this study, may help people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease develop specific music-related responses and positive engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to review studies that evaluated technology-based prompting systems for supporting participants with dementia or acquired cognitive impairment in their performance of multistep daily tasks.

A scoping review was conducted to identify eligible studies through a search of four electronic databases, that is, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The search, which covered the 2010–2020 period, led to the identification of 1,311 articles, 30 of which were included in the review. These articles evaluated six different types of prompting systems: context-aware, automatic computer prompting, context-aware, mediated computer prompting, teleoperated robot prompting, self-operated augmented reality prompting, self-operated computer or tablet prompting and time-based (preset) computer, tablet or smartphone prompting.

Technology-aided prompting to help people with dementia or acquired cognitive impairment perform relevant multistep daily tasks is considered increasingly important. This review provides a picture of the different prompting options available and of their level of readiness for application in daily contexts.

Persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease experience increasing activity engagement failures, with consequent cognitive, social, and physical drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to assess a technology-aided program to help these persons to independently start and carry out daily activities at the appropriate times.

The program was implemented with eight participants according to an adapted non-concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The program provided each participant with: timely reminders about the activities to carry out, verbal instructions about the activity steps, and brief encouragements and praise.

All participants showed improvement during the program, that is, they managed to independently start the activities at the scheduled times and perform those activities with satisfactory levels of accuracy (i.e. with mean percentages of correct steps nearing or exceeding 90).

A technology-aided program, such as that used in this study, may help persons with mild and moderate Alzheimer disease engage in daily activities, with possible benefits for their cognitive functioning, social image, and physical condition.

The study was to develop and test a new technology-aided program to support basic communication and leisure of people with extensive neuro-motor and speech impairments.

The study was carried out according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across three participants. During the intervention, the participants used the new program. This relied on a smartphone, a tablet, and radio frequency identification tags, and allowed the participants to make communication and leisure choices via small hand movements. Communication choices involved the possibility of sending messages or making telephone calls to preferred persons. Leisure choices involved the possibility of accessing preferred music, comedy, and sport or television shows.

During the intervention, the participants were highly successful in activating communication and leisure events independently. They had mean cumulative engagement times of about 7–8.5 min per 10-min session.

The new program is easily accessible and affordable in terms of the technology components involved and appears highly suitable and friendly for individuals who have only limited hand movement.

This study assessed two technology systems aimed at enabling a man with intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and motor and tactile discrimination problems to make verbal requests through simple one-hand signs.

The study was conducted according to an ABAB design. During the B (intervention) phases, the man used the two systems, which included (1) nine mini recording devices fixed on the man’s clothes or wheelchair (i.e. in positions the man touched with his sign movements) and (2) nine tags with radio frequency identification codes (fixed at approximately the same positions as the mini recording devices) and a dedicated tag reader, respectively. Making a sign (i.e. touching a recording device or reaching a tag) led to the verbalization of the request related to that sign.

During baseline, the mean frequency of signs/requests made was below 2 per session, and only some of those requests were identified/satisfied. During the intervention, the mean frequency of requests made and satisfied was about 10 per session with each of the systems.

The results, which are to be taken with caution given the preliminary nature of the study, seem to suggest that the systems can help translate simple signs into verbal requests.