LifePal: A Mobile Self-Management Tool for Supporting Young People with Autism

Kerry-Louise Skillen; Mark Donnelly; Chris Nugent; Nichola Booth

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_227

LifePal: A Mobile Self-Management Tool for Supporting Young People with Autism

Kerry-Louise Skillen, Mark Donnelly, Chris Nugent, Nichola Booth

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

400 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cope with a life-long condition that can affect communication skills and social interaction. This can lead to feelings of social anxiety, depression and isolation, especially among young adults with ASD. One strategy to support the needs of people with ASD is to facilitate proper structure and organization in the person’s daily life. This paper presents a technology solution that promotes a self-management paradigm towards empowering people with ASD to enhance their independence and life skills. ‘LifePal’ is a smartphone App that provides users with task management, life-logging, reminding, and travel support. The App is supported via a dedicated web portal that promotes collaboration between caregivers and their dependents, towards defining obtainable life goals. The paper presents implementation details of the core platform services and discusses the results from a two-stage evaluation, conducted over a period of 6 months. Based on the feedback from 20 participants (4 parents (Phase one), 8 child-parent groupings (Phase two)), the findings positively support the potential utility of LifePal, however, highlight the importance of delivering sufficient user training to support adoption.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Unknown Host Publication
Publisher	Springer
Pages	1168-1173
Number of pages	6
Volume	57
ISBN (Print)	978-331932701-3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_227
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 23 Dec 2015
Event	14th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016 - Paphos, Cyprus Duration: 23 Dec 2015 → …

Conference

Conference	14th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016
Period	23/12/15 → …

Keywords

Assistive technology
Autism spectrum disorder
Education
Near field communication
Personalisation
Self-Management

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_227

Medicon2016 paper 48Author Accepted Manuscript, 4.74 MB

http://uir.ulster.ac.uk/35660/1/medicon_life_acceptance.pdf

Cite this

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title = "LifePal: A Mobile Self-Management Tool for Supporting Young People with Autism",

abstract = "People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cope with a life-long condition that can affect communication skills and social interaction. This can lead to feelings of social anxiety, depression and isolation, especially among young adults with ASD. One strategy to support the needs of people with ASD is to facilitate proper structure and organization in the person{\textquoteright}s daily life. This paper presents a technology solution that promotes a self-management paradigm towards empowering people with ASD to enhance their independence and life skills. {\textquoteleft}LifePal{\textquoteright} is a smartphone App that provides users with task management, life-logging, reminding, and travel support. The App is supported via a dedicated web portal that promotes collaboration between caregivers and their dependents, towards defining obtainable life goals. The paper presents implementation details of the core platform services and discusses the results from a two-stage evaluation, conducted over a period of 6 months. Based on the feedback from 20 participants (4 parents (Phase one), 8 child-parent groupings (Phase two)), the findings positively support the potential utility of LifePal, however, highlight the importance of delivering sufficient user training to support adoption.",

keywords = "Assistive technology, Autism spectrum disorder, Education, Near field communication, Personalisation, Self-Management",

author = "Kerry-Louise Skillen and Mark Donnelly and Chris Nugent and Nichola Booth",

year = "2015",

month = dec,

day = "23",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_227",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-331932701-3",

volume = "57",

pages = "1168--1173",

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note = "14th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016 ; Conference date: 23-12-2015",

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AU - Skillen, Kerry-Louise

AU - Donnelly, Mark

AU - Nugent, Chris

AU - Booth, Nichola

PY - 2015/12/23

Y1 - 2015/12/23

N2 - People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cope with a life-long condition that can affect communication skills and social interaction. This can lead to feelings of social anxiety, depression and isolation, especially among young adults with ASD. One strategy to support the needs of people with ASD is to facilitate proper structure and organization in the person’s daily life. This paper presents a technology solution that promotes a self-management paradigm towards empowering people with ASD to enhance their independence and life skills. ‘LifePal’ is a smartphone App that provides users with task management, life-logging, reminding, and travel support. The App is supported via a dedicated web portal that promotes collaboration between caregivers and their dependents, towards defining obtainable life goals. The paper presents implementation details of the core platform services and discusses the results from a two-stage evaluation, conducted over a period of 6 months. Based on the feedback from 20 participants (4 parents (Phase one), 8 child-parent groupings (Phase two)), the findings positively support the potential utility of LifePal, however, highlight the importance of delivering sufficient user training to support adoption.

AB - People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cope with a life-long condition that can affect communication skills and social interaction. This can lead to feelings of social anxiety, depression and isolation, especially among young adults with ASD. One strategy to support the needs of people with ASD is to facilitate proper structure and organization in the person’s daily life. This paper presents a technology solution that promotes a self-management paradigm towards empowering people with ASD to enhance their independence and life skills. ‘LifePal’ is a smartphone App that provides users with task management, life-logging, reminding, and travel support. The App is supported via a dedicated web portal that promotes collaboration between caregivers and their dependents, towards defining obtainable life goals. The paper presents implementation details of the core platform services and discusses the results from a two-stage evaluation, conducted over a period of 6 months. Based on the feedback from 20 participants (4 parents (Phase one), 8 child-parent groupings (Phase two)), the findings positively support the potential utility of LifePal, however, highlight the importance of delivering sufficient user training to support adoption.

KW - Assistive technology

KW - Autism spectrum disorder

KW - Education

KW - Near field communication

KW - Personalisation

KW - Self-Management

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DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_227

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-331932701-3

VL - 57

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EP - 1173

BT - Unknown Host Publication

PB - Springer

T2 - 14th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016

Y2 - 23 December 2015

ER -

LifePal: A Mobile Self-Management Tool for Supporting Young People with Autism

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Keywords

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