ADA: An IoT-based virtual coaching platform for assisting daily life activities of ageing persons with Down syndrome.

Advances in care and medical treatments have increased the life expectancy of People with Down Syndrome (PwDS) to well beyond 60 years. However, PwDS experience an accelerated and earlier ageing process, with specific difficulties and life circumstances that may be different from the general population. Coaching them towards maintaining good functioning and autonomy where possible, social well-being and healthy ageing is feasible but must take these specifics into account.
The ADA project will realize an innovative coaching approach to strengthen the so called “Adult ego-state” of PwDS personality to increase their feeling of self-efficacy and help them to learn coping with the challenges of daily lives as they age. The coaching approach is implemented in a virtual coaching platform that exploits unobtrusive smart objects and IoT technologies to support the user in according to his/her needs. Data analytics processes recognize the needs of the person, match them with the coaching plan, and support and decide a personalized reaction in daily life activities.
As demonstrator, a use case, tackling the key challenge of medicine assumptions for PwDS, is addressed to gather requirements and demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.
The project will be conducted by a multidisciplinary consortium composed of social care professionals, coaching experts, researchers on education for persons with intellectual disabilities, and ICT technological experts for IoT, embedded systems and data analytics A scientific advisory board is foreseen for objective definitions and further strengthening the outreach into the relevant communities.