Effects of an Intervention Program on Interaction and Bodily Emotional Traces in Adults with Congenital Deafblindness and an Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Interaction with people with congenital deafblindness (CDB) and an intellectual disability (ID), and recognition of their often unconventional expressions, is complex. In this study, the effects of a two-phase intervention program intended to foster harmonious interaction and the use and recognition of expressions based on a bodily emotional trace (BET) were examined. Five adults with CDB and an ID, and ten of their caregivers participated in the study. A multiple-baseline design was used. Target behaviours were attention by caregiver, attention by participant, confirmation by caregiver, mutual affective involvement, quality of interaction, participant expressions based on a BET, and participant expressions based on a BET recognised by the caregiver. Overall, the results tend to be positive. However, some of the changes were minimal and the results varied considerably among participants.The results of this study suggest that it is possible to foster harmonious interaction and the use and recognition of expressions based on a BET in adults with CDB and an ID. evident in eye-gaze, smiling, and reactions to acoustic signals similar to the human voice (Pérez-Pereira & Conti-Ramsden, 1999). Vision and hearing cannot be addressed in the same way in interactions with people with congenital deafblindness (CDB). It is therefore necessary to address other senses, like the tactile modality.People with CDB mainly experience the world through their proximal senses, often resulting in expressions that are atypical for seeing and hearing people. These expressions can be stereotypical and idiosyncratic (Bjerkan, 1996), and difficult for their communication partners to understand. Expressions made by people who have an intellectual disability (ID) in addition to CDB are often even more idiosyncratic and subtle, and are not always used consistently. This makes it very hard to notice and interpret these expressions, complicating interaction and subsequent qualitative communication. Qualitative communication is assumed to be based on harmonious interactions.Moreover, communication is facilitated by a history of shared experiences. Adults with CDB and an ID who live in residential settings meet many different communication partners, which severely limits the construction of a history of shared experiences to communicate about. In short: establishing harmonious interaction and subsequent qualitative communication with people with CDB and an ID is very difficult (Bloeming-Wolbrink, Janssen, Ruijssenaars, Menke, & Riksen-Walraven, 2015;Bruce, 2005;Dalby et al., 2009;Damen, Janssen, Huisman, Ruijssenaars, & Schuengel, 2014;Dammeyer, 2010;Hart, 2010;Janssen et al., 2003a;Martens, Janssen, Ruijssenaars, & Riksen-Walraven, 2014). Communication partners (e.g. caregivers, parents, teachers) need high levels of sensitivity, special insights, and considerable skills to establish harmonious interaction and qualitative communication with people with CDB and an ID (Janssen, Riksen-Walraven, & Van Dijk, 2003b).Several intervention studies have show...

Monitoring Communication Development Between Teachers and Their Students With Congenital Deafblindness: An Application of the Layered Communication Model

“…Wolthuis et al (2019) concluded that the developmental character of LCM was reflected by the quantitative differences found in the presence of the LCM behaviors both between dyads as well as between and within layers of the model. Primary layer behaviors were found in comparable quantities for all four dyads, which is similar to earlier research that suggested that this is a basic communication layer (Janssen et al, 2003;Damen et al, 2015;Bloeming-Wolbrink et al, 2018). However, at the secondary and tertiary layer, differences between dyads were found.…”

“…Given the exploratory nature of that study, more research was needed with more dyads, especially since people with CDB form a very heterogeneous population. As such, replication is an important tool in research to increase the generalizability of results, especially in (multiple) single-case studies (Barlow et al, 2009). Like in the study of Wolthuis et al (2019) we found that the presence of primary layer behaviors was comparable between the dyads with students of different developmental ages.…”

“…This study uses a baseline logic, so participants served as their own control for evaluating change (Gast and Hammond, 2010). Results are described for each dyad separately, followed by a group analysis to analyze and describe differences between the students' developmental ages (Barlow et al, 2009;Gast and Hammond, 2010).…”

“…Janssen et al, 2003(cf. Janssen et al, , 2010Damen et al, 2011;Bloeming-Wolbrink et al, 2018). This behavior was present relatively often in dyads 6, 7, and 8, which used (tactile) sign language and often imitated the signs of the other as a means of confirmation.…”

“…Change over time was, however, not found, therewith failing to show LCM's use as a tool to monitor communication development. The exploratory nature of the study required more research to confirm its findings (Barlow et al, 2009). Therefore, the current study aims at further analyzing the use of the LCM as a tool to describe communication and as a tool to monitor communication development for students with CDB.…”