scholarly journals CHILDREN WITH VISION IMPAIRMENT AND MULTIPLE DISABILITIES: ISSUES OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND PROFESSIONALS’ CHALLENGES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vassilis Argyropoulos ◽  
◽  
Charikleia Kanari ◽  
Andrea Hathazi ◽  
Maria Kyriacou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Multiple Disabilities ◽  
Vision Impairment

scholarly journals Development of Preverbal Communication Skills Scale for Children with Multiple Disabilities and Visual Impairment

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 2668
Author(s):  
Emine Ayyıldız ◽  
Nur Akçin ◽  
Yıldız Güven
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairment ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Multiple Disabilities ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Communication Behaviors ◽  
Turkish Children ◽  
Quantitative Phase ◽  
Qualitative Phase

Communication is crucial for any human being and the children with disabilities are no exception. Due to the number and combination of their disabilities and/or conditions, children with multiple disabilities and visual impairment (MDVI) have especially limitations of the ability to communicate the meaningful and functional way with their environment. In order to improve the communication skills of children with MDVI, it is very important to identify unique, individual communication behaviors of these children. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable developmental assessment tool to evaluate preverbal communication skills of Turkish children with MDVI.Sequential explanatory mixed methods were used in the study. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the mothers of 34 children suffering from MDVI to explore the preverbal communication behaviors of the children based on the daily observances of their mothers’ with a descriptive analysis being performed on the data. From the findings of the interviews and the literature review, Preverbal Communication Skills Scale for Children with Multiple Disabilities and Visual Impairment (PCSS-MDVI) and the scoring guide were developed. During the quantitative phase, 65 mothers of children with MDVI were given this scale in order to determine the validity and reliability of the scale. For the reliability analysis, 34 mothers of typically developing (TD) children age between 1 to 24 months old also were given the scale.The findings of the qualitative phase indicated that children with MDVI were communicating mostly with preverbal behaviors and the analysis on data from the quantitative phase with respect to item analysis, reliability and validity revealed that the scale is valid and reliable. The scale has 17 items and three subscales, which are; regulating behaviors, social interaction and joint attention. The majority of children with MDVI cannot communicate verbally and there is lack of studies and assessment tools for the purpose of effectively evaluate these children’s preverbal communicative behaviors in our country. Based on the analysis, the PCSS-MDVI has been demonstrated good preliminary psychometric properties and it can be used as an instrument to evaluate preverbal communication behaviors of children with MDVI. It is the preliminary study of the development of the scale. Thus, validation of the scale should be repeated with more participants and the data of the video observations of preverbal communication behaviors of children with MDVI should be added to the analysis.            

scholarly journals The Improvement of Non-Verbal Communication Skills of Five Females with Profound and Multiple Disabilities Using Song-Choices in Music Therapy

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ju-young Lee ◽  
Katrina McFerran
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Preference Assessment ◽  
Multiple Disabilities ◽  
Verbal Communication ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Choice Making ◽  
Multiple Case

Facilitating the expression of preferences and choices of non-verbal adults who have profound and multiple disabilities is important yet challenging. The present research project aimed to examine whether consistent opportunities for expressing song-choices within music therapy resulted in an improvement in communication abilities of five females with profound and multiple disabilities. A multiple case study design was used. Each participant attended weekly thirty-minute sessions comprising three song-preference assessment sessions followed by ten song-choice intervention sessions. Affective responses to songs in the song-preference assessment were analyzed to identify each participant’s preferred songs. Four song-choice opportunities consisting of a pair of preferred and less-preferred songs were offered during the intervention sessions, and intentional choice-making behaviors were facilitated. The descriptive video-analysis of the sessions shows that the participants were able to indicate consistent preferences for songs, make intentional choices of songs, and improve communication skills throughout the ten intervention sessions. Two participants developed clear choice-making skills, such as selecting a preferred song-card from two options and alternating eye-gaze between a song-card and the researcher. The other three participants demonstrated idiosyncratic but clear intentional behaviors using body movements, facial expressions, and vocalizations to indicate choices of preferred songs. Inter-rater reliability was calculated. These results suggest that some adults with profound and multiple disabilities are capable of improving non-verbal communication skills when appropriate interventions and strategies are provided and also highlight the potential of music therapy to promote communication development of these individuals.

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