Fostering Daily Life Skills in Young and Older Adults With Neurodegenerative Diseases Through Technological Supports

Abstract

Persons with neurodegenerative diseases may have behavioral, cognitive, emotional, motor, and social impairments due to their clinical conditions. The objective of this article is to provide the reader with the newest empirical contributions available and a comprehensive critical overview on the use of assistive technology-based interventions and virtual reality-mediated setups to assess and recover individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. A literature overview was carried out. Thirty-one studies published along last decade were selected. The retained studies overall recruited 438 participants. Four categories of studies were identified, namely (1) recovering of functional and physical activities, (2) communication abilities, (3) leisure and recreation, and (4) virtual reality. AT-based interventions were effective and suitable to promote adaptive behaviors of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. VR setups were helpful to assess and recover persons with neurodegenerative disorders.

Virtual Reality and Wearable Technologies to Support Adaptive Responding of Children and Adolescents With Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Critical Comment and New Perspectives

“…Technology-aided options provide the opportunity to independently administrate and self-regulate useful interventions for both assessment and rehabilitative purposes (Rahman et al, 2020 ). Beside assistive technology-based programs (Stasolla and Bottiroli, 2020 ), one may envisage the use of virtual reality setups (VR) and/or wearable technologies (WT) (Vona et al, 2020 ).…”