Empowering parents with mild intellectual disabilities through design

Abstract

In the Netherlands 1.5% of persons with an intellectual disability have children, most of these parents only have mild intellectual disabilities (Willems, De Vries, Isarin & Reinders, 2007). In practice this means that a few thousand children have parents with a mild intellectual disability (De Vries, 2005). Research shows that there is a limited system capacity to support parents with mild intellectual disabilities (MID). Whereas most other parents can rely on their social network when they need support with child rearing, parents with MID have to rely on the care system (McConnell, Matthews, Llewellyn, Mildon, & Hindmarsh, 2008) because of their limited social network. Given the likely increase in parents with MID (Feldman, 1994) and the increased risks for their children there is a need to empower these parents and stimulate their self efficacy. This master thesis focuses on exploring different possibilities to create an intelligent support tool to empower parents with MID and stimulate their self efficacy through design. Elaborate, explorative user research resulted in concept Luna; an intelligent support tool to empower parents with a mild intellectual disability by providing them with extra structure during the eating routine in a pro-active way. At the end of the afternoon just before dinner time, Luna starts up by making a sound. Luna is an interactive table projector. A projection of plates and cutlery on the table at a given time is used as an intuitive way to motivate parents to set the table by imitating the projection. If a parent places a plate, Luna will give a positive feedback sound. Luna will make a positive feedback noise to confirm the good behavior of the parent. When the table is fully set, the projections of the plates and cutlery will disappear supported by sound; providing the parent with extra visual and auditive positive feedback. The design enables parents to snooze the projection. The parent can decide to delay the time the projection starts. The snooze function provides the parent with a feeling of autonomy. The parent can decide to delay the time the projection starts. This feeling of autonomy is an important element of the design. The design fosters collaboration. One of the requirements that was set at the start of the project is that parents should feel in control, they should feel like they could collaborate with the design like partners. (Oomen, 2009; Durinck & Racquet, 2003; Het Nederlands Jeugdinstituut, 2014). However, the actual amount of autonomy is limited. The design can only be snoozed for three times and with each snooze the snoozing time will decrease. The results of this master thesis could be valuable for creating a behavioral change within the same target group for other activities, but for other target groups as well by teaching routine behavior through repetition and structure assisted by visual and auditive feedback in a pro-active way. With only little adjustments the design could empower any target group. The amount of possible applications is infinite.