Fábrica de histórias : aplicativo baseado em contação de histórias para o exercício da memória em idosos por meio de estimulação cognitiva

Abstract

The growth of the elderly population in Brazil arouses the need to increasingly think about the welfare of this people and the idea of active aging. A reason for this is that with the natural process of aging less and less ability to process information is acquired and memory, attention and concentration disorders may arise, and even evolve to more severe conditions such as the onset of dementia. In order to enable preventive action against dementias, it is important that the elderly people keep their minds active, especially with activities that value their life experiences and their role in society. Aiming to act on memory disorders and contribute to stimulating the cognitive functions of the elderly, this paper presents Fábrica de Histórias, a storytelling-based application that allows users to listen to stories and also tell their own stories as a way to stimulate abilities such as memorization, attention and language. The app also makes use of Q&A activities to measure cognitive abilities through the application of the Mini Mental State Exam, a tool used for tracking cognitive dysfunction. The methodology used in the development of this work comprised field research, observation and semistructured interviews, in order to gather data about the target audience, their context and their needs, as well as being important for the requirements gathering and definition of project structures. As a result, it was possible to implement a prototype with three stories, as well as all its fully functional modules and interfaces adapted to the accessibility needs of the target audience. Therefore, this paper presents itself as a contribution in the development of digital solutions for the elderly, a field that has a lot of potential, but still little explored.