Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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The challenge of the environment
- Author:
- FRANKISH Pat
- Journal article citation:
- Community Living, 2(1), July 1988, pp.18-19.
- Publisher:
- Hexagon Publishing
Challenging behaviour can be reduced by better communication and a therapeutic environment.
A qualitative study of the practice‐related decision‐making of intensive interaction practitioners
- Authors:
- FIRTH Graham, GLYDE Megan, DENBY Gemma
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49(2), 2021, pp.117-128.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Background: This study looked to investigate the sometimes conscious and sometimes intuitive decision-making processes of Intensive Interaction practitioners. More specifically, this study set out to develop a rich description of how practitioners make judgements when developing a dynamic repertoire of Intensive Interaction strategies with people with severe or profound learning difficulties and/or autism, how this decision-making process is enacted in practice and what issues inform such decisions. Materials and Methods: This research followed a “Template Analysis” qualitative methodology, informed by semi-structured interviews with 13 experienced Intensive Interaction Practitioners (who had completed the Intensive Interaction Coordinators course as administered by the Intensive Interaction Institute). The participants included the following: speech and language therapists, parents, teachers, residential care staff and managers, and a clinical psychologist. Results: The findings of this study indicate why and how certain decisions are made by experienced practitioners before, during and after engagement in Intensive Interaction. Such decision-making is indicated as sometimes being intuitive in nature, sometimes more conscious, sometimes moving between the two cognitive states as differing issues arise. Practitioner decision-making was focused on a number of issues, including specific learning or care “agendas”; practitioner confidence and knowledge; environmental considerations; individual learner characteristics and behaviour; learner attention, “attunement” and arousal levels; building a shared “repertoire”; and issues of available time. Conclusions: The issue of how novice Intensive Interaction practitioners may best be supported to more quickly and confidently develop improved Intensive Interaction practices is discussed, proposing the development of a cyclical process of experiential learning and supported reflection. (Edited publisher abstract)
Systemic empathy with adults affected by intellectual disabilities and their families
- Authors:
- WEBB-PEPLOE Hilly, FREDMAN Glenda
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Family Therapy, 37(2), 2015, pp.228-245.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article explores how therapists might bring forth and value the voice of the person with intellectual disabilities alongside the voice of their family and carers so that all those present can feel understood and appreciated. The authors offer a description of systemic empathy as the ability to connect with one person while maintaining the possibility of connecting with other individuals in the system and at the same time tuning in to those people's connections with each other. Examples from practice are shared that challenge the ability to work empathically when there are several people in the same room holding different or opposing perspectives and who evoke different emotional reactions in practitioners. Principles and practices are offered through which they have been able to make empathy systemic with examples from their work with adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. These include empathising through curiosity and irreverence, co-creating meanings with more than one person, double listening with ears, eyes and bodies, preparing our own emotional postures, taking the perspectives of others and creating reflecting processes. (Edited publisher abstract)
Using contact work in interactions with adults with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorders
- Authors:
- BROOKS Sharon, PATERSON Gail
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39(2), June 2011, pp.161-166.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
People with learning disabilities and additional autistic spectrum disorder are at risk of becoming socially isolated because of their difficulties in interacting with others. This article describes a project which used contact work with people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder in a residential setting. Contact work is a form of Pre-Therapy, which is a person-centred approach which focuses on psychological contact. The approach has been developed using the idea of contact reflections for use with people who find it difficult to establish psychological contact because of their emotional, mental health or cognitive problems. The approach was used with 2 clients with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. Both clients were offered 10 individual sessions using contract reflections with speech and language therapists. The sessions were evaluated using a tool created for the project that was designed to measure different contact behaviours. The impact of the project on both clients and therapists is discussed, and was felt to be useful on a subjective level. In addition, the measurement tool is discussed, and found to be useful in collecting quantitative data but requires additional work to capture the more qualitative aspects of the work.
Through the eye of the Cyclops: evaluating a multi-sensory intervention programme for people with complex disabilities
- Authors:
- MITCHELL Jillian R., van der GAAG Anna
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30(4), December 2002, pp.159-165.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Odyssey Now (ON), a multi-sensory programme designed for use with people with learning disabilities. A combination of qualitative methods was used to assess levels of interaction and engagement in two individuals with severe / profound learning disabilities. Increases in interaction and engagement were observed during the ON sessions. Individuals interacted more with their environments during these sessions than they did during other, 'routine' activities. Staff also observed positive changes in the participants over time.
Communication in multi-sensory rooms
- Author:
- HIRSTWOOD Richard
- Journal article citation:
- Focus, 23, February 1998, pp.20-31.
- Publisher:
- RNIB
Discusses the use of multi-sensory rooms to help people develop language and communication skills for people with visual and learning difficulties.
Commentary on “From ‘what do you do?’ to ‘a leap of faith’: developing more effective indirect intervention for adults with learning disabilities”
- Author:
- REYNOLDS Sharron
- Journal article citation:
- Tizard Learning Disability Review, 18(2), 2013, pp.84-87.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Alix Lewer's and Celia Harding's research on the factors influencing the success of speech and language therapy intervention in residential homes and day centres for people with learning disabilities. Design/methodology/approach – The article reflects on the issues raised by Lewer and Harding, in the light of the literature on implementation and the author's own research on the implementation of behaviour support plans. Findings – Similar barriers underlie problems of implementation of programmes related to communication and behaviour support. Originality/value – Professionals need to improve their understanding of implementation problems and ensure that their role includes providing support to frontline staff to initiate and maintain changed practices. (Publisher abstract)
Communication issues in autism and Asperger syndrome: do we speak the same language?
- Author:
- BOGDASHINA Olga
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2005
- Pagination:
- 288p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Providing a theoretical foundation for understanding communication and language impairments specific to autism, the author explores the effects of different perceptual and cognitive styles on the communication and language development of autistic children. She stresses the importance of identifying each autistic individual's nonverbal language, which can be visual, tactile, kinaesthetic, auditory, olfactory or gustatory – with a view to establish a shared means of verbal communication. She offers an explanation of why certain approaches, might work with some autistic children but not others. The ‘What They Say' sections of the book enable the reader to see through the eyes of autistic individuals and to understand their language differences first hand. ‘What We Can Do to Help' sections throughout the book give practical recommendations on what to do in order to help autistic individuals use their natural mechanisms to learn and develop social and communicative skills. The final chapters are devoted to assessment and intervention issues with practical recommendations for selecting appropriate methods and techniques to enhance communication, based on the specific mode of communication a person uses.
A special kind of brain: living with nonverbal learning disability
- Author:
- BURGER Nancy Russell
- Publisher:
- Jessica Kingsley
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 224p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
Sharing the experience of bringing up a child with nonverbal learning disability (NLD), this warm and accessible book offers advice on subjects ranging across diagnosis and therapy, children’s interaction with each other, suitable activities for a child with NLD and how to discuss NLD with children. This book informs parents and professionals who work with children with NLD.
A psychoanalytic approach to language delay: when autistic isn't necessarily autism
- Author:
- URWIN Cathy
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 28(1), April 2002, pp.73-93.
- Publisher:
- Routledge
This paper describes family work with four children from different ethnic backgrounds presenting with autistic features in the context of delayed or deviant language development and, in one case, elective mutism. It begins by describing how psychoanalytic approaches to language development have tended to see the process as underpinned by symbol formation as a compensation for loss of the object. This is contrasted with an approach which emphasizes language development as an aspect of a broad process concerned with enabling emotional experience to become thought. I also emphasize the significance of the survival and development of the self in achieving separation. In the case studies, the paper highlights the degree of trauma in the parents' backgrounds, which had impeded them from containing their children's developmental anxieties. The parents' telling their stories was both valuable to them and enabled them to become more emotionally available to their children. In all cases the work promoted language development and autistic features disappeared or waned considerably after relatively brief intervention. The conclusions discuss the relevance of these findings to the autistic child population, and the value of child psychotherapy to differential diagnosis within the autistic spectrum.