Effects of an Intervention Program on Interaction and Communication in Adults with Congenital Deafblindness and an Intellectual Disability

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

Improving quality of the child care environment through a consultancy programme for centre directors

This study examined the effects of a newly developed on-site consultancy programme to improve global quality of the child care environment in non-parental child care centres for 0- to 4-year-old children as measured with the ITERS-R/ECERS-R. Using a randomised controlled trial with a pretest, posttest, and follow-up test, we compared 35 experimental group with 33 control group. The consultancy programme comprised three consultations in total. Analysis on the items that were specifically targeted during the consultancy showed a significant improvement on these targeted items between pretest and posttest and between posttest and follow-up. The effect of the consultancy programme on the total scores (including the non-targeted items) was not significant

Multiple Determinants of Externalizing Behavior in 5-Year-Olds: A Longitudinal Model

In a community sample of 116 children, assessments of parent-child interaction, parent-child attachment, and various parental, child, and contextual characteristics at 15 and 28 months and at age 5 were used to predict externalizing behavior at age 5, as rated by parents and teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and path analysis yielded a significant longitudinal model for the prediction of age 5 externalizing behavior, with independent contributions from the following predictors: child sex, partner support reported by the caregiver, disorganized infant-parent attachment at 15 months, child anger proneness at 28 months, and one of the two parent-child interaction factors observed at 28 months, namely negative parent-child interactions. The other, i.e., a lack of effective guidance, predicted externalizing problems only in highly anger-prone children. Furthermore, mediated pathways of influence were found for the parent-child interaction at 15 months (via disorganized attachment) and parental ego-resiliency (via negative parent-child interaction at 28 months)

Infants' interactions with professional caregivers at 3 and 6 months of age: A longitudinal study

Abstract This study longitudinally investigated the quality and stability of 64 infants' interactions with their professional caregivers in child care centers at 3 and 6 months of age, i.e., across the first 3 months after they entered child care. It was also examined whether the infants' negative emotionality (as rated by the mother) predicted the quality of the caregiver-infant interaction. The interactive behavior of the professional caregivers (sensitivity, cooperation) and the infants (responsiveness, involvement) was rated from videotapes recorded in three different caregiving situations, lasting about 25 min in total. In contrast to our expectation, the quality of the caregiver-infant interaction did not significantly increase across the first 3 months in child care. As expected, significant rank order stability was found for the quality of the caregivers' behavior over time. Also in accordance with our expectations, infants with higher negative emotionality scores experienced less sensitivity and cooperation in interactions with their primary professional caregivers at both ages. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Infant; Child care center; Negative emotionality; Caregiver-infant interaction; Longitudinal Nonparental child care is nowadays an ordinary part of life for many children in most western countries. Infants often attend child care centers from a very early age onwards and for substantial amounts of time. Despite the general acknowledgement that well-attuned interactions with adult caregivers are of vital importance for a healthy development of very young infants, surprisingly little is known about the quality of the interactions these infants have with their professional caregivers in child care. The present study aimed to shed more light upon this matter. We observed the quality of infants' interactions with their primary professional caregivers in child care centers at 3 months of age when the infants had first entered child care, and again 3 months later when the infants were 6 months of age. We examined (1) whether the quality of the caregiver-infant interactions changed or remained stable across the first 3 months after entering child care, and (2) whether the infants' negative emotionality predicted the quality of these early caregiver-infant interactions

Need fulfillment in caring relationships: Its relation with well-being of residents in somatic nursing homes

Objectives: Quality of life and well-being in nursing homes are becoming more important in research and practice. Based on self-determination theory, the objective of this study is to examine the contribution of need fulfillment in the caring relationship to residents’ subjective well-being. It was expected that the relation of need fulfillment in the caring relationship with well-being is mediated by need fulfillment in general.\ud \ud Method: During interviews with 88 residents of somatic nursing homes (age 50–97, mean age 78.6), perceptions of need fulfillment in the caring relationship, need fulfillment in general, and two components of subjective well-being, i.e., depressive feelings and life satisfaction, were measured. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analyses and mediational analysis.\ud \ud Results: As expected, the results indicated that need fulfillment in the caring relationship was related to lower levels of depressive feelings and more life satisfaction. Need fulfillment in general mediated the relation of need fulfillment in the caring relationship with depressive feelings.\ud \ud Conclusion: As suggested by the results, it can be concluded that high-quality caring relationships contribute to the need fulfillment of residents and their well-being. The quality of caring relationships is thus an important topic for further research. The field may especially benefit from longitudinal studies and studies that use observations of the caring relationship in addition to self-report

Fostering Emotion Expression and Affective Involvement with Communication Partners in People with Congenital Deafblindness and Intellectual Disabilities

Recent studies have shown that it is possible to foster affective involvement between people with congenital deafblindness and their communication partners. Affective involvement is crucial for well-being and it is important to know whether it can also be fostered with people who have congenital deafblindness and intellectual disabilities. Methods. This study used a multiple-basleine design to examine whether an intervention based on the Intervention Model for Affective Involvement would i) increase affective involvement between four participants with cogenital deafblindness and intellectual disabilities and their 13 communication partners and ii) increase the participants'positive emotions and decrease their negative emotions. Results. In all cases, dyadic affective involvement increased, the participants'very positive emotions also increased and the participants negative emotions decreased. Conclusion. The results indicate that communication partners of persons with congenital deafblindness and intellectual disabilities can be successfully trained to foster affective involvement