TIME FOR BREAKFAPP

Introduction

Make your own breakfast! (Copyright Noomi Hebert)

Making breakfast is something you probably do without thinking twice, or, indeed, at all. You have done it a million times before, and – hey, it’s too early to think! But if you do next time, you will realise there is a lot of things going on. The kettle is simmering, the bread is in the toaster, the hob is heating up and you are whisking eggs for your omelette. In total, there are four parallel processes taking place – and that is a lot. For many people with special needs, that amount of activity has to be broken down to single, discrete steps. And this is what you will do by creating a personalised Breakfapp.

To be able to do things on your own is self-empowering as well as the key to independent living. In this eLearning, you will learn how to create personalised and specific training apps for the people you are working with. It is meant to compliment the training app Breakfapp. You will be supplying the tools to build skills and confidence.

Your goal is to build a training app for helping someone with special needs to make his/her own breakfast. You will start with an app that already has a few ready-made frames, and adapt it to your special needs. To build an app is easy – and fun!

Task

Create a Brekfapp! (CC: wikimedia Jrv73)

This module will teach you how to build an app in a few, easy steps.

At http://www.cmi2.eu/en-gb/app_generator/home, you will find the app generator.

Your tasks are:

To analyse the training needs and suitability of your trainee for independent living.
To break down all the processes of making breakfast into single, discrete steps.
To time all the activities, make a flowchart and put together a flow of actions that are rightly timed.
To learn to create an individualised training app for helping someone make his/her own breakfast.

Process

What came first? The hen or the egg? (Copyright: Noomi Hebert)

To analyse the training needs and suitability of your trainee for independent living

Of course the abilities of your trainee is the most important factor. For some, it might be a bellyful to make a sandwich and pour some orange juice. In other cases, you might want to start as early as shopping for milk, bread, coffee, fruit etc., as well as looking into the nutrition aspects. It is you, who know your trainee the best, that will be able to tell.

It is always best to start simple, and then upgrade.

To investigate the breakfast habits of your trainee, and the appliances of your trainee’s kitchen.

What does your trainee have for breakfast? And what would s/he really like? Find out, estimate how difficult it is, and put together a dream breakfast! Before doing this, read up a bit on nutrition. With those facts, you might be able to make the dreams a bit less sweet (and fat), but even tastier.

How is the kitchen equipped? Is anything missing? A good advice is to get a timer if there is a coffee maker. It saves not only the pot from getting charred, but is a great security gadget. Overheated coffeemakers that are left too long can cause fires (and they are easy to forget – for everyone).

How often does your trainee shop for breakfast? Is the food always fresh, or do you need a reminder to make him/her check? (If you are ambitious, you can make another app that shows the difference between fresh and stale (or worse) products.

To time every process carefully, take pictures, and make a flowchart.

You will need to time every process carefully, and you need to work together with you trainee to get it right. Different people spend a different amount of time doing things.

Take pictures of every step. You might not need all of them, but it is better to have too many rather than too few. When the app is ready, you will see if something needs to be clarified further (like putting the butter back into the fridge), or

When you know how the timing works, divide each step into active (filling the kettle with water) and passive (waiting for the water to boil). Then, insert things to do in the waiting gaps. Of course, you have to get it right not only in time, but in purpose – it’s no good to toast bread early only because it fits in the timing if it’s stone cold when breakfast is ready.

See the document Flowchart and Timing for a deeper look at this part of the process.

To create an individualised training app for making a breakfast!

Open the ready-made Breakfapp.

The app comes with a few ready-made screens that you can use or replace. Follow your flowchart, and add details if you find out there is something missing.

The most important thing is to really try the app out, and see where the gaps might be.