Running head: ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICE

Assistive Technology Device: Magnetic Makeup Board

Jessica A. Scott
Touro University Nevada

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Occupational Profile
Savannah Maybell is a 17-year-old female who sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI),
secondary to tumbling into a concrete wall, while at a high school cheerleading practice.
Savannah has recently been discharged from the Shepherd Inpatient Rehabilitation Center and
admitted to the Shepard Day Program in Decatur, Georgia. Savannahs injury was classified as a
moderate TBI since she remained in a coma for 45 minutes, which led to severe cognitive
deficits. At the time of the injury, Savannah was a junior in high school and lived at home with
her father and two younger sisters. She also was co-captain of her high school cheerleading
squad and the president of her high schools Student Government Association (SGA). At home,
she enjoyed playing board games with her sisters and watching The Bachelor television show.
Savannah enjoyed participating in the Annual Autism Speak Walks and shopping with her
friends from school. Savannahs main concern since the accident was how her peers would
perceive her without makeup, so she currently refuses to have any visitors. Her priorities are to
regain her memory, retrain her brain to apply makeup independently, and play board games with
her sisters again.
Diagnosis
A TBI is an alteration in the function of the brain caused by an external blow to the head.
In adolescence, motor vehicle accidents are the major cause of TBIs, followed by assault, sport
and recreation injuries, and falls (Case-Smith & OBrien, 2010). As aforementioned, Savannah
was diagnosed with a moderate TBI, due to a wall collision while at cheerleading practice. When
Savannah collided into the wall, she acquired a focal brain injury, which is a collision of the
brain with the inner tables of the skull. (Pendleton & Schultz-Krohn, 2013). Savannah is
currently in the post-acute rehabilitation stage of her recovery and is functioning at a level VIII

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on the Rancho Los Amigos Cognitive Functioning Scale. Savannah still lacks concrete thinking;
therefore, she requires visual aids/cues to complete her occupations. Savannah continues to
demonstrate impairments with figure-ground, meaning she has difficulty locating objects against
a similar background (Pendleton & Schultz-Krohn, 2013). Savannah has been released from the
24 hour nursing care at the Shepard Inpatient Rehabilitation Center because she has shown
significant improvements in rehabilitation treatments. Transferring Savannah to the Shepherd
Day Program will allow her to learn the skills necessary for re-integration into the community.
Purpose
The purpose of the Magnetic Makeup Board is to provide a visual aid as a memory
device for clients with traumatic brain injury. Once a client has reached level VIII on the
Ranchos Los Amigos Cognitive Functioning Scale, they are able to carryover new learning.
Carryover for new learning describes those with TBI, who do not need any assistance once a new
task is learned (Pendleton & Schultz-Krohn, 2013). Like most teens in high school, Savannah
feels that her appearance is very important; therefore, she never goes out in public without her
makeup on. The Magnetic Makeup Board will provide her the step-by-step instructions that are
needed to apply makeup. These steps will be beneficial because it will help to retrain her brain
on how to apply and organize her makeup.
By creating the Magnetic Makeup Board, Savannah will be able to follow each step to
apply her makeup; ultimately helping her to feel more comfortable to accept visits from her
friends. Magnetic Makeup Boards are becoming a trending topic on Pinterest and created by
teenage girls her age. Slightly altering the trend to fit the lifestyle of a client with TBI, Pintereststyled Magnetic Makeup Boards will camouflage the fact that the device can be used as an

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assistive device to help retrain their brain to apply makeup. Once her brain is retrained, she
eventually will be able to use the device without any alterations.
Review of Literature
Goverover, Chiara, and DeLuca (2010) conducted a study to examine the use of selfgeneration to improve learning and memory in people with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The
purpose specifically explored whether participants would demonstrate better recall or
performance of everyday life tasks when they were presented in the generated condition
compared with the task presented in the provided condition (Goverover, Chiara, & DeLuca,
2010). Ten people who were diagnosed with moderate or severe TBI and 15 healthy control
(HC) people with no reported neurological disabilities participated in this study. Participants
were excluded from the study if they currently had a history of neurological illness (other than
from TBI), history of major psychiatric illness, history of alcohol or drug abuse, or severe visual
or motor impairment that could interfere with the study procedures. After receiving approval
from the institutional review board, all patients provided informed consent to participate in the
study.
The participants were asked to recall instructions for two cooking tasks and two financial
management tasks. Each task was further divided into 12 individual steps, which were presented
individually on index cards. One cooking and one financial management task were presented in
the provided condition, in which all the directions were explained to and read by the participants.
The other cooking and financial tasks were presented in the generative condition. A key word
from each step was omitted, and the participants were asked to generate this keyword. For
example, if the participants were asked to prepare an omelet, the task would be presented as:

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beat together___. The participant would then have to generate the missing item (i.e., two
eggs)(Goverover, Chiara, & DeLuca, 2010).
Thirty minutes after the initial presentation of the task, the participants were asked to
perform the task of cooking or financial management. One week after the initial presentation, the
participants were called by phone verbally to recall the steps presented in all four tasks. Scoring
for the procedure was completed in two dimensions: the first was the recall or performance of
each of the 12 steps required to complete the tasks, and the second was the sequence of recall or
performance of the 12 steps. Therefore, 2 points were scored for every step, one point for
remembering the step and one for one point for the correct sequence of the step, meaning the
participant could receive a maximum score of 24 points (Goverover, Chiara, & DeLuca, 2010).
The results concluded that the generation conditions were recalled at significantly higher
rates than the task presented in the provided condition across both groups of participants and
tasks. Thus, both groups of participants benefited from the generative condition compared to the
provided condition when learning the meal preparation and finance management tasks. The
recall of the items in both participants significantly dropped across 30 minutes and one week in
both generative and provided conditions. The results demonstrated that self-generation enhances
new learning and memory of functional tasks in people with or without TBI. Further research is
needed to complete the investigation as to whether severity of cognitive impairments and
meaningfulness of task that are needed to be learned, have an affect on self-generation
(Goverover, Chiara, & DeLuca, 2010).
Burleigh, Farber, and Gillard (1998), conducted a research study examining the
relationship of the degree of community integration to life satisfaction with persons with TBI.
Although there is automatically a limitation, there needs to be current literature on this study,

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The researchers need to further investigate the changing health care trends to the occupational
therapy services that would occur more frequently in the community, rather than in the hospital
settings. The researchers thought that TBI interventions should focus on the long-term, reallife issues as the clients return home to re-enter and continue to life in their communities. They
stated, about half of all persons with moderate TBI will return to school, work, and
independent living within one year of the injury (Burleigh, Farber, & Gillard, 1998). Home and
community integrations are frequent goals and priorities in their treatment.
For the study of the relationship of the degree of community integration to life
satisfaction, 30 participants were selected as clients with TBI all receiving services in a
suburban, post-acute, and community re-entry programs with an inclusion criterion of 6 or more
hours of a coma and 8 or more years after injury. The participants took the Community
Integration Questionnaire (CIQ), which is a 15-item instrument used to document the extent of
participants community integration (Burleigh, Farber, & Gillard, 1998). The CIQ assesses
home, social, productivity, as well as total community integration. Scores can range from 0, no
integration, to 29, maximum community integration. A significant difference was found on the
total community integration scores for persons with TBI living independently, in a supported
community, and in an institution. The Life Satisfaction Index-A (LSIA-A) was also an
instrument utilized in this study to examine the quality of life persons after TBI. The LSIA-A is
an 18-item scale used to document the participants life satisfaction.
After the participants completed the CIQ and the LSIA-A, the researchers coded the
information and analyzed the data. The results showed that participants with higher social
integration reported having a greater satisfaction with life. Additionally, the longer the time since
the injury, the lower the community integration scores. However, there was a significant

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difference between the three residential groups. The results indicated that participants that were
living in the supported apartments reported significantly more home integration than those of the
residential or shared homes. The researchers also believed that there were many limitations of
this study and further research needs to be conducted.
Fabrication
The items needed to fabricate a Magnetic Makeup Board device are: a picture frame, hot
glue gun, a thin sheet of metal, tin-snips (metal cutters), magnets, colored magnets, decorative
paper, spray adhesive, permanent marker, and makeup (i.e., foundation, blush, eye shadow,
eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick). To begin creating a Magnetic Makeup Board, the client should
pick out a picture frame that they enjoy, and remove the glass and back. Second, using metal
cutters cut the metal to the size of the picture frame backing. Third, attach the decorative paper to
the metal utilizing the spray adhesive. The client can pick a color based on preference or simply
to match a room. One thing to consider is the mood of the picture frames. Research shows that
red backgrounds can bring a negative emotion to clients if they are already agitated or easily
angered; therefore, red would not be a good choice. Fourth, put the metal in the frame and close
the backing on the picture frame. Fifth using hot glue, attach the magnets to the bottom of the
makeup. Make sure the magnets are strong enough; therefore, use extra strength magnets in order
to hold the makeup in place. Sixth, using a permanent marker number the decorative magnets
from one to six. These are all the steps to complete the Magnetic Makeup Board.
In order to use as a visual aid for seeing and learning, having each step numbered would
be beneficial. Visuals can also be sequenced to breakdown and learn a skill step by step. Visual
aids remain the same and consistent pathways for memory can be used. Visual aids improve the
independence and self esteem of all people with learning difficulties. For the Magnetic Makeup

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Board visual aid, a pink colored magnet was numbered using a permanent marker. A picture for
each step was added to allow the client time to process what they are asked to do, which limits
any frustrations for them. Also, the client needs to be mindful of the figure ground principle,
which is necessary for recognizing objects visually. One question the client should ask is Will
she be able to see dark make-up on a dark background? This question needs to come up before
the fabrication of the device.
Grading Up
To grade this activity up, the client should take off the numbered magnets; this will force
the client to think abstractly on how to apply the makeup. Additionally, the less visual cues, the
more independent the client can become.
Grading Down
To grade this activity down, the client can add pictures next to the numbered magnets
with supervision, furthermore, limiting frustration and making the Magnetic Makeup Board
easier to use.
Conclusion
The primary aim of the Magnetic Makeup Board as an assistive device is to improve the
clients capacity to process information in the hopes of improving her task performance and
increases her independence in daily functioning. Savannah, who will not step outside without her
makeup on would benefit from this device. Since she is family- centered, the creation of this
device could be shared with her sisters. Research shows that self-generation during learning of
function tasks significantly improve recall of learned information. By creating the magnetic
Makeup Board, Savannah is able to retrain her brain to apply her makeup and feel more
comfortable when her friends visit her. This is an age appropriate device that many teenage girls

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are creating. As her memory begins to return, she will be able to grade up the Magnetic Makeup
Board to look less like an assistive device and more like an average Magnetic Makeup Board
from Pinterest.

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Appendix A
Cost Analysis
Item

Cost

Location

11 x 14
Picture
Frame

$18.50

Hobby
Lobby

Glue Gun
w/ glue
sticks

$4.75

Dollar
General

12 x 18
Tin Sheet
Tin-snips
Round
Magnets

Hobby
Lobby
$7.99 Wal-Mart
Hobby
$2.40
Lobby
$9.99

30 Tub
Color
Magnets

$3.79 Target

Decorative
paper x2

$1.18

Hobby
Lobby

Spray
adhesive

$4.00

Dollar
General

Permanent
Marker

$1.00

Dollar
General
TOTAL= $53.60

Cost Comparison
Do It Yourself (DIY)

~ $53.60

Esty

$30.00 - $160.00

Ebay

$15.00 - $30.00

Amazon

$54.00 - $129.00

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Appendix B

AT Device

Graded Up

Graded Down

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References
Burleigh, A. S., Farber, S. R., & Gillard, M. (1998). Community Integration an Life Satisfaction
After Traumatic Brain Injury: Long-Term Findings. The American Journal of
Occupational Therapy, 52(1), 45- 52. http:// ajot.aota.org/
Case-Smith, J., & OBrien, J.C. (2010). Occupational Therapy for Children (6th ed.). Maryland
Heights, MO.: Elsevier/ Mosby.
Goverover, Y., Chiaravalloti, N., & DeLuca, J. (2010). Pilot Study to Examine the Use of SelfGeneration to Improve Learning and Memory in People With Traumatic Brain Injury.
The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 64(4), 540-546. http://ajot.aota.org/
Pendleton, M. H., & Schultz-Krohn, W. (2013). Occupational Therapy Practice Skills for
Physical Dysfunction (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier/Mosby