Nico is a 15 year old boy with Down syndrome who lives at home with his mom.

Nico has some challenges in his daily living:

• He cannot travel by himself.
• (He needs to take a taxi to school or be driven by his mom).
• He often forgets to pack all the necessary things for school or other activities.
• He sometimes forgets to put on a warm jacket when it is cold outside.
• He cannot read very well, especially numbers can be difficult. That is why he prefers symbols instead of text (his visual processing and visual memory skills have always been a strength)

Nico´s goals are:

• Being able to travel to school and other places by himself.
• Not forgetting to bring all necessary things to school or other activities.
• Be more independent, as his parents will be more confident that he is safe by checking his location on the carer web and offering assistance when he needs it.

How POSEIDON can help Nico to achieve his goals:

By using the Home Navigation system (HNS), Nico´s mom can make a route description at the POSEIDON Carer web that will show up in Nico´s smartphone via the POSEIDON mobile app. There she can customise the steps of a journey by adding text and photos. So far she has only made short routes for walking, but now, Nico´s mom would like to make a route from home to school by also taking a bus. This will help her son to be even more independent.

On Friday Nico´s mom walks the route and takes pictures of surroundings that Nico will recognize at the different decision points (places where Nico needs to change directions or cross the street). When she comes home she transfers the pictures to the PC. Then she makes a personalized route in HNS by adding the pictures and text descriptions.

When this is done, she asks her son to come downstairs so he can train the route at home before he goes out to follow the route descriptions the next day. The first thing Nico does is to go through the route together with his mom, step by step. Afterwards Nico tries out two different training modes on the HNS. In the first one he must choose the correct direction and the other one the correct photos associated to each step. Because Nicos visual processing and visual memory skills is a strength, this are good games for him because it is very visual.

Because Nico has trouble remembering what to do at what time during the day, Nicos mom would like to remind Nico to train more on the route tomorrow (Saturday). To do so, she uses POSEIDON web for carers to make a calendar event that will appear on Nico´s smartphone on the POSEIDON mobile app. She adds instructions to the event by using text and symbols, photos and sound recording.

She would also like to remind Nico that they are going out on Sunday to try to follow the route description on his smartphone. She therefore makes another calendar event where she adds the personalized route that she made in HNS. In this way, the calendar event will automatically start to guide Nico on the route once he gets out of the house.

On Saturday morning, Nico hears the phone plinging. It is the POSEIDON mobile app telling him to train more on the route that his mom made yesterday, in the Home Navigation system. Through the voice message, he hears his mom saying that he should click on the Home Navigation app icon on the computer screen. He also sees a picture of the computer with close up of the Poseidon Application folder on the screen. This helps him to understand what he shall do and he walks over to the computer and clicks on the Poseidon Application folder where he then gets a new instruction from his mom telling him to choose the HNS icon.

When he pushes next once again on the mobile screen, a new picture and voice message appear, this time of the first screen of the HNS and his mom explaining where he should click to start the game. He plays the games multiple times that day with some breaks in between. In the beginning, he clicks the wrong direction sometimes, but the last time he manages without problems. He feels very proud.

Before he goes to bed that evening the POSEIDON mobile app gives a notice that he needs to place the phone on charger, as the battery is 60% and he needs full battery for tomorrow (Context Awareness). He had forgotten, that´s why it is very good that he got a reminder, because otherwise he would not be able to practice the route outside the next day.

On Sunday, the next day Nico gets a new reminder that he shall walk outside with his mom using the POSEIDON mobile app to navigate. Nico feels ready to walk the route together with his mom after he has practiced many times on the computer (HNS) yesterday.

Nico and his mom get ready to walk outside when the POSEIDON mobile app reminds Nico to put on a warm jacket (Context Awareness). It is cold that day so it is very nice to get a reminder about this.

When they walk outside the house, the first picture that Nico´s mom added to the route in Home navigation system pops up on Nicos smartphone (POSEIDON mobile app) together with the recording of his mom´s voice telling him to take left past the red house. When they walk down the street and Nico follows the navigation on his phone a new picture pops up telling him (mom voice) to take left at the big oak tree and follow it to the end where the bus stop is. When he is getting close to the bus stop a new picture appears (and voice message) telling him what bus he should take. Nico takes the correct bus, and when they are on the bus another picture appears showing him at which stop he needs to get off.

When they get off the bus, Nico receives a new picture telling him to walk down the street to the right and he will see the school in the end of the street. They walk down the street and he finds the school “all by himself” using the POSEIDON mobile app. They practice the route once more later that same day to make sure he is ready to try this on his own the next day.

When they get home the last time, Nico´s mom takes pictures of Nico´s school things and luckily the carer web is responsive so she can go directly to the carer web on her smartphone. By using text, symbols and pictures, she can make instructions about how Nico should pack his schoolbag. These instructions Nico will receive later that evening. It makes it so much easier for her as a parent to be able to use the POSEIDON web for carer on both her PC and mobile phone. In that way she can easily add instructions when she is away from home.

Later that evening Nico gets reminded that he shall pack his schoolbag so it is ready for school tomorrow. He gets instructions with pictures, symbols and voice of his mom telling him what he should do. The first picture is of his schoolbag with an instruction that he should find it. The next picture is of his schoolbooks, then his penal and then of his wallet with his bus card stored inside. The last instruction is a picture of the hallway with an instruction to put the schoolbag next to the front door.

Before he goes to bed that evening the POSEIDON mobile app gives a new notice that he needs to place the phone on charger, as the battery is 40% and he needs full battery for tomorrow (Context Awareness). He had once again forgotten to do this so it is very good that he got a reminder, because otherwise he would have trouble tomorrow.

Monday morning Nico gets a reminder to get ready for school and to remember his schoolbag. He can see the picture of the schoolbag in the hallway.  He feels very excited and a little nervous about traveling to school all by himself for the first time, but he has the POSEIDON mobile app and the phone is fully charged thanks to the Context Awareness.

Before walking outside, he gets a reminder to put on a warm jacket (Context Awareness). The navigation starts when he walks outside and he sees the same instruction as yesterday about walking to the left where the red house is and then a picture about the big oak tree. When he reaches the bus stop he stands still and wait while he looks at the picture of the correct bus he shall take.

 

The bus is a few minutes late and after a little while a question appears asking him if he wants to call his mom because he has been standing still for a while (Context Awareness). He is just about to call his mom when the bus shows up. The bus ride is okay and he gets the picture about what stop to go off. He manages to walk off at the correct stop.

When he goes off the bus, a new picture to walk to the right appears. He starts to walk but after a while the POSEIDON app tells him to return to the correct path (Context Awareness). He must have walked in the wrong direction. He walks back again and walks the opposite direction (this time he is sure it is correct) but then he reaches two sets of roads, and he finds it hard to choose which one to go down. He tries to remember where he walked yesterday. They look very similar. He chooses the one to the right and starts walking. After a short while the app asks him this time if he wants to call his mom (Context Awareness). He wants to try one last time by choosing to make a new route from where he is now. This time he manages to choose the correct one and reaches the school. He is glad that the app could tell him when he was walking in the wrong direction so that he could manage to travel to school by himself (only with help from POSEIDON).

At the same time his mom looks at the carer web on her phone, where she can track the position of her son, that her son is safely at school. She almost called him when she saw he was walking in the wrong direction, but then she saw he turned around and started to walk correctly.

Monday afternoon

After school his mom has made him something to eat and then Nico gets a new calendar reminder (that his mom has made while he was in school on the carer web) that it is soccer training later that day.

He follows the instructions and makes sure he has everything he needs before his mom drives him to practice. His new goal is to practice and learn the route to soccer training. But his mom wants him to first focus on learning the way to school and be comfortable with using the POSEIDON mobile app.