From checklist to app for attuned and stimulating care for persons with intellectual disabilities: evaluation of a co-creative strategy.

Purpose: The effective Attune and Stimulate-checklist improves sensitive responsiveness in caregivers of persons with severe intellectual disabilities. To widen access to the tool for implementation purposes, this paper describes the co-creative, iterative transformation process from checklist to app, and evaluates the user experience of this Attune & Stimulate-app (A&S-app).

Materials and methods: First, the A&S-app development, in which 50 parents and professionals were involved, was described according to a spiral development process model. Second, the A&S-app was evaluated by 15 other parents and professional caregivers of persons with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities in a three-week pre-experimental design. User experiences were investigated using semi-structured interviews and pre- and post-test social validity questionnaires.

Results: Five themes were extracted from documentation of the development process (e.g. (a) collaboration between stakeholders, software developers and researchers; (b) alternation between creating and testing; (c) benefits of digitalisation). Both the social validity ratings of the expectations (M = 4.01, SD = 0.43) and the experiences (M = 3.70, SD = 0.52) with the A&S-app were positive. The interviews revealed four overarching themes: (1) the importance, reasons of use, and practical application; (2) the design, technical functioning, and other characteristics of the app (e.g. clear, concrete, flexibly applicable, and easily accessible); (3) (automated) effects on caregivers (e.g. focused observation, more awareness of emotional states); and (4) future implementation.

Conclusion: This study resulted in a positively appraised A&S-app with perceived potential to be sustainably implemented in the daily lives of parents and professionals of persons with intellectual disabilities.