Bishan Home working on app to better support its residents

Aim is to slow cognitive decline of seniors with intellectual disabilities

- Koh Ming Lun

Her finger darts across the tablet, as an in-game avatar tells Ms Toh Siew Mui, 49, to choose four fruits from a table of pictures of objects.

Another game instructs her to listen carefully and select objects that match audio descriptions. With furrowed brows and deep in concentration, she aced the game and broke out in a smile.

Ms Toh is among the residents at Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled who are testing games on a new app developed with Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), aimed at slowing cognitive decline and providing socio-emotional support to seniors with intellectual disabilities.

The app is called Advancing Mental Invigoration (AMI) Intelli, which also features a conversational chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

To better support its ageing residents, Bishan Home for the Intellectually Disabled is working with SUTD to develop and pilot the app, which is still in development. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the university and the home on Oct 31 at Bishan Home.