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Background: Related to the target group of young children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay, the aims of this study were to obtain more insight into (the interrelations between) several characteristics of these children's expressive communicative behaviour and to explore associations between child behaviour, partner behaviour and contextual factors. Methods: A coding scheme was specifically developed and used to code observational data of 38 children. Three different communication‐eliciting situations were video recorded. Potential communicative acts were detected, described, coded and counted within various coding categories. Data analysis mainly involved chi‐square tests in combination with Cramer's V and Friedman's two‐way analysis of variance by ranks. Findings: Potential communicative acts of young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delay can be described in terms of focus, used modalities, level of initiative, communication complexity, signs of functionality and signs of emerging intentionality. The communicative focus of the children is mostly elicited by the prompt given by the communication partner and relates to certain behavioural modalities. Specific scaffolding behaviours of the partner are associated with the communication complexity of the children. Conclusion: This study provides some concrete suggestions on how to organise the interaction with these children. Accessible summary: This paper is about young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delays.The communication behaviours of this group seem all to alike.We took a closer look at these children's communication behaviours and how these relate to what other people do and the context of their interactions.We found that if you describe these children's low‐level communication behaviours in great detail, interesting differences can be seen, and other people can help the children to focus on specific objects or to shift attention from an object to person they are interacting with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals with developmental language disorder or Williams syndrome are reported to use more gestures than individuals with typical development. However, these two groups differ considerably in visuospatial and language skills, two skills that are hypothesized to shape gesture rate. Aims: We first examined whether children with both developmental language disorder and children Williams syndrome do indeed use more gestures. Our second aim was to disentangle the role of vocabulary and visuospatial skills in the use of supplementary gestures (i.e., containing unique information). To account for participant heterogeneity, analyses included both group comparisons and vocabulary and visuospatial skills at an individual level. As a third aim, the role of visuospatial skills was further examined in relation to gestures containing spatial content. Methods & Procedures: In a cross‐sectional group design, three participant groups watched and then retold a cartoon: children with typical development (n = 25), children with developmental language disorder (n = 25) and children/young people with Williams syndrome (n = 14). Their narrations were transcribed and hand gestures were coded based on gesture–speech integration (redundant, adds information to particular lexical items, gives information that is entirely absent from speech) and spatial content. Participants' expressive vocabulary and visuospatial skills were measured. Outcomes & Results: Between‐group comparisons showed that individuals with developmental language disorder or Williams syndrome did indeed use more gestures. Poisson loglinear modelling demonstrated that a relative higher use of supplementary gestures was determined by lower expressive vocabulary skills. Neither the group distinction nor visuospatial skills shaped the supplementary gesture rate nor spatial gesture rate. Conclusions & Implications: Regardless of neurodevelopmental condition or typical development, a higher use of supplementary gestures was influenced by expressive vocabulary skills. Children with lower vocabulary skills spontaneously capitalized on the multimodality of communication to express constituents that were not present in their verbal speech. This finding is a promising starting point for future gesture intervention studies examining whether implicit modelling of gesture use can encourage gestures even more in these children and if this allows them to achieve higher linguistic complexity. On a methodological note, the observed intra‐group skill variability demonstrates that group comparisons need to be complemented with correlational measures accounting for skills at an individual level. What this paper adds: What is already known on the subject: Children with developmental language disorder and children with Williams syndrome are more inclined to use gestures than typically developing children. Research conducted in adults with typical development points towards the role of lexical and visuospatial skills in gesture use, but it is unclear how these skills shape gesture use in children with atypical development. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: This study compares the rate of gestures that convey meaning that is not expressed in speech between the three aforementioned populations. Novel is the inclusion of the group distinction, individual lexical skills, and visuospatial skills in one encompassing statistical model. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: The inclination to use gestures that replace speech is related to lexical skills. Visuospatial skills do not seem to play a role and should not be considered as a factor when thinking about gesture intervention. Understanding how gestures relate to specific skills is a first step to understanding how gesture interventions can bolster language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Evidence shows that neurotypical individuals who stutter use fewer gestures than those who do not stutter. Presently, no research exists about the interaction of stuttering and gestures in individuals with Down syndrome. Method: Twenty‐nine individuals with Down syndrome (7–19 years) of whom 16 stuttered and 13 spoke fluently and 20 neurotypical children (3–10 years) of whom 8 stuttered and 12 spoke fluently participated in this study. In spontaneous speech transcriptions, stuttering events and gestures were coded. Results: Comparisons of gesture frequency during stuttered and fluent speech inside the Down syndrome and neurotypical group show that the Down syndrome group uses significantly more gestures during stuttered than during fluent speech while no significant difference is seen in the neurotypical group. Conclusions: There is some preliminary evidence that individuals with Down syndrome try to compensate for their stuttering events, however, analyses on word level are necessary to confirm a successful compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is generally acknowledged that parent social support is an important target for intervention. To explore the specific needs of parents of young children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay (SDD), we aim to chart the sources and perceived sufficiency of the social support they receive. Method: Within the context of a broader project, 42 parents of a young child with SDD filled out a questionnaire on contextual factors, including information on social support. Results: The majority of parents reported to receive (more than) sufficient support. Insufficiency is primarily reported with regard to practical support. Apart from the partner, grandparents of the child were the most common source of support. Conclusions: This study confirms the importance of professional support and work‐life balance within this specific target group. Specific attention for practical support needs seems warranted considering the high basic care needs of these children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Within the context of the Special Interest Research Group (SIRG) on Persons with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD), researchers often discuss the methodological problems and challenges they are confronted with. The aim of the current article was to give an overview of these challenges. Methods: The challenges are centred on six topics. These reflect the main components of a study's design: (a) participant demarcation, (b) participant recruitment, (c) data collection and instruments, (d) data analysis, (e) ethics/including the "voice" of persons with PIMD and (f) theoretical models. Results: Next, to describing the specific challenges, possible solutions and pathways to address them are discussed. These are illustrated by recent studies by the authors and other researchers in the field. Conclusions: The current contribution wants to stimulate further discussion and exchange of ideas, and the development of creative research techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay are pre‐symbolic communicators. The primary aim of this study was to reveal the variability within the communicative functioning of this group of children in terms of communication level, the reasons to communicate and behavioural expressions. Methods: Twenty‐six children between 14 and 58 months with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay were recruited. The Communication Matrix of Rowland (2011, Communication Disorders Quarterly, 32, 190) was used to integrate different sources of information on the children's communicative functioning. Results: These children primarily communicated at the level of pre‐intentional and intentional behaviour, aimed at refusing, obtaining and, to a lesser extent, social purposes. Conclusions: To develop or adapt early intervention strategies, and to monitor progress in communicative development, an even more nuanced view on these children's communicative utterances in terms of frequency, duration, idiosyncrasy and context relatedness is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although family quality of life (FQOL) and the family‐centered approach (FCA) are often conceptually linked, empirical research on their relation is scarce. This study investigated the relation between the FCA and FQOL in families with a child (0–18 years) with an intellectual disability receiving home‐based support (HBS) in Flanders. The impact of the parental work situation and the child's support needs on FQOL (domains) were studied too. Through the Helpgiving Practices Scale (HPS) and the Enabling Practices Scale (EPS), parents of participating families (n = 58) reported about the FCA in their families' HBS. Using the Beach Center FQOL Scale, mainly mothers reported about their families' quality of life. The relation between the realization of the FCA, parental employment, and the child's support needs on the one hand, and FQOL on the other hand was studied via multiple regression analyses. Additionally, the best predicting model was determined for FQOL (domains). Globally, a positive relation between FQOL and the FCA was found. Dependent on the FQOL domain, a different relation was identified with the family‐centered components. Components of the EPS (i.e., comfort and parental autonomy) were better predictors than those of the HPS. The parental work situation was a significant predictor for satisfaction regarding total FQOL (with and without disability‐related support), family interactions, and parenting. The child's support needs were a significant predictor for emotional well‐being. As the first of its kind, this study investigated the relation between FQOL and the FCA in detail. More, in depth, and especially long‐term research is, however needed to fully understand the relation between FQOL and its contributors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the high prevalence of visual impairments in persons with severe or profound intellectual disability (ID), often a formal diagnosis is unavailable. Direct support workers and staff members have access to the information of the visual functioning through the personal files and build knowledge based on their own experiences. In order to provide individualized and high quality support in daily life, the accuracy and availability of this information of the visual functioning is essential. This study investigates the knowledge of direct support workers and staff members on the visual functioning of their clients and the written information available in the personal files. It is investigated to what extent they do agree on their knowledge and how certain direct support workers and staff members are about their knowledge on the visual functioning. Additionally is investigated to what extent the information available in support files is based on formal assessment. For 104 clients with severe or profound ID a direct support worker and a staff member filled in a questionnaire about their visual functioning. Next, the personal files were analyzed. Direct support workers and staff members respond significantly differently on the questions on the impaired visual functions. Direct support workers rate the certainty level of their knowledge on their clients' visual functions higher than staff members. The personal files lack information on the visual functioning. If information is available, it is mostly based on subjective impressions. The knowledge of direct support workers and staff members and the information available in the personal files provide no comprehensive picture of the visual functioning of the persons with severe or profound ID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Everyday activities are an important setting for stimulating child functioning, but are understudied in young children with a significant cognitive and motor developmental delay. Therefore, we aim to characterize their family activities in terms of diversity, frequency, child engagement and family member's presence, compared to typically developing children. Methods: By asking a parent to fill out an adapted version of the Child Participation in Family Activities questionnaire, the activity pattern of 49 children within the study group and 45 children within the control group were assessed and compared. Results: Children in the study group generally experience less diverse activities (with an additional lower frequency of out‐of‐home activities) and show lower engagement levels compared to typically developing children. Conclusions: Incorporating high levels of personal interaction, highly stimulating activities and adapted leisure activities into the daily activity pattern of children with multiple disabilities might be a pathway to increased engagement levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The increased life expectancy of people with intellectual disability intensifies the need for age‐specific support. Research on effects of support strategies on quality of life (QoL) of these people remains scattered. Methods: A systematic search of peer‐reviewed publications since 1995 was performed, with participants having intellectual disability and being aged ≥50 years. Studies include experimental, observational and exploratory designs, analysing links between support strategies and QoL outcomes. The present authors adopted a narrative approach. Results: The present authors found 73 articles, assessed their quality, thematically categorized interventions into 12 themes, and listed them with their stated relationships to QoL. Conclusions: The studies indicated the importance of funding, provision and organization of services/personnel, education, and cooperation among different support systems. The provision of good housing or activities, support when these provisions change, provision of (mental) health care, dementia care and end‐of‐life care, life story work, future planning and support for (I)ADLs are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The hallmark of attachment is that contact, proximity and relief from stress are sought from specific individuals, laying important groundwork for healthy socioemotional functioning. This study investigated the extent to which differentiated attachment behaviour can be observed in young children with significant developmental delay (DD). Method: Video‐taped observations of the parent–child and stranger–child interaction were conducted at home and complemented with questionnaires in 20 families with a child with significant DD (age 2–7 years with an average DD of 49 months). Results: Children displayed more intense and persistent contact‐seeking, contact‐maintaining and resistant behaviour in the episodes with their parent compared to the episodes with the stranger. Parent‐reported secure attachment behaviour was slightly more characteristic towards mother compared to father. Conclusions: Even children with significant DD develop differentiated attachment behaviour. Detailed observations may support parents in identifying the interactions that make the attachment relationship with their child special. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) present limited peer‐directed behaviors toward their peers with PIMD. It is not clear how staff can facilitate and promote the mutual peer‐directed behaviors between persons with PIMD. In this study, we explored if peer‐directed behaviors among persons with PIMD can be increased by an intervention that is focused on training the staff in providing social scaffolding behaviors toward their clients. An A‐B‐B′‐C design was used in this study. A baseline condition was followed by two intervention conditions and a follow‐up. Four staff members participated in a training in which they were informed about peer interactions in persons with PIMD and learned how to promote these interactions. They developed a peer interaction supportive activity. This activity was provided to two persons with PIMD for 10 weeks. Social scaffolding behaviors of staff as well as peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD were coded during videotaped observations. A significant increase of social scaffolding behaviors of staff members was observed during the intervention with a significant decrease at follow‐up. Significantly, more singular and fewer multiple peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD were observed during the intervention. Both singular and multiple peer‐directed behaviors decreased again at follow‐up. A short training of staff members already positively affects their social scaffolding behaviors and increases the amount of peer‐directed behaviors of persons with PIMD. However, the amount of both behaviors decreased again at follow‐up. This argues to broadly apply this training in services and schools for persons with PIMD and to complement it with continuing staff coaching on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In spite of the profound cognitive and physical problems, people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities ( PIMD) are able to develop joint attention behaviours ( JAB) and benefit from positive interactions. Aims To investigate which context factors influence the JAB of people with PIMD. Method Based on video recordings of 45 participants, JAB and context factors were analysed. Results An unstructured interaction situation produced the most responses of a person with PIMD, whereas a structured interaction situation produced the most initiatives. Furthermore, the familiarity of the partner and the familiarity of objects used in the interaction had no influence on the JAB. The sensitivity of the interaction partner was positively related to the presence of JAB. Conclusions Interaction partners of people with PIMD should be aware of both the ability of people with PIMD to use JAB and the influence of different context factors on these JAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities ( PIMD) meet other children with PIMD in day care centres or schools. This study explores the peer-directed behaviours of children with PIMD, the peer interaction-influencing behaviour of the direct support workers and the children's positioning. Method Group activities for children with PIMD initiated by a direct support worker were video-recorded. The behaviour and positioning of the children and the behaviour of the direct support workers were coded. Results Limited peer-directed behaviour of the children with PIMD and peer interaction-influencing behaviour of the direct support workers are observed. Weak associations were found between the positioning or peer interaction-influencing behaviours and the behaviour of children with PIMD. Conclusions Children with PIMD show social interest in each other during group activities. More knowledge is needed to create an environment which facilitates peer-directed behaviours of persons with PIMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested whether children's more anxious and avoidant attachment is linked to decreased support-seeking behavior toward their mother during stress in middle childhood, and whether children's decreased support-seeking behavior enhances the impact of experiencing life events on the increase of depressive symptoms 18 months later. Ninety-eight 8- to 12-year-old children filled out questionnaires assessing their level of anxious and avoidant attachment and depressive symptoms. Children's support-seeking behavior was observed through measuring the time children waited before calling for their mother's help while carrying out a stressful task. Results supported the hypothesis that more anxiously or avoidantly attached children waited longer before seeking maternal support. Moreover, waiting longer was related to increased depressive symptoms at follow-up in children who reported more experienced life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multisensory storytelling ( MSST) is a storytelling method developed for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities ( PIMD). The developers of MSST have established specific guidelines aimed at increasing the listener's attention. Whether, and to what extent, these guidelines indeed increase the listener' attentiveness is unknown. This study analyzed the relationship between the effects of these guidelines and the attentiveness of listeners with PIMD. Some 45 storytellers created an MSST book tailored to a person with PIMD. The book was read 10 times, and video recordings were made of the first, fifth, and tenth reading sessions. For each session, the percentage of attention paid to the storyteller and to the book was scored using an interval method. The relationship between adherence to the guidelines (repetition, use of original text, offering stimuli actively, and use of neutral background) and attentiveness of the person with PIMD was then analyzed. During storytelling, the listeners were attentive to MSST for an average of 69% of the time. The attention increased between the first and fifth reading sessions, and then dropped between the fifth and tenth sessions. Part of the guidelines (repetition, actively offering the stimuli and duration of the story) were positively related to the amount of the listeners' attention; for other parts of the guidelines (using original text and using neutral background), no significant correlations were found. The results of this study can help with developing clearer instructions to new storytellers. To optimize the attentiveness of a person with PIMD to an MSST story, the authors recommend that the storyteller takes ample time to read the book and provides the listener with active access to the stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This article is the second in a two-part series. Heyvaert et al. focused on the effectiveness of restraint interventions ( RIs) for reducing challenging behaviour among persons with intellectual disabilities) in the first article. In this second article, Heyvaert et al. focus on experiences with RIs for challenging behaviour among people with intellectual disabilities. Methods A mixed methods research synthesis involving statistical meta-analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis techniques was applied to synthesize 76 retrieved articles. This second article reports on the qualitative meta-synthesis of 17 articles on experiences with RIs for challenging behaviour among people with intellectual disabilities. Results The 17 included articles report on important variables relating to the persons receiving RIs, to the persons giving RIs and to their interactions and relationship, as well as variables situated at the meso- and macro-level. Conclusions The developed model can assist in reflecting on and improving of current RI practices among people with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This article is the first in a two-part series: we focus on the effectiveness of restraint interventions ( RIs) for reducing challenging behaviour ( CB) among persons with intellectual disabilities in this first article. In the second article, we focus on experiences with RIs for CB among people with intellectual disabilities. Methods A mixed-methods research synthesis involving statistical meta-analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis techniques was applied to synthesize 76 retrieved articles. This first article reports on the meta-analysis of 59 single-case experiments ( SCEs) on effectiveness of RIs for CB among people with intellectual disabilities. Results and Conclusions The RIs reported on in the SCEs were on average highly effective in reducing CB for people with intellectual disabilities, and this reduction in CB was statistically significant. However, the effects vary significantly over the included participants, and the published data and reported outcomes are rather unrepresentative of the everyday use of RIs among persons with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Multi-sensory storytelling (MSST) books are individualized stories, which involve sensory stimulation in addition to verbal text. Despite the frequent use of MSST in practice, little research is conducted into its structure, content and effectiveness. This study aims at the analysis of the development, content and application in practice of the MSST books in persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). Materials and Methods Forty-nine persons with PIMD and their direct support person participated. We analysed if the books are constructed and read according to guidelines. Content and used stimuli were related to age. Results Of the books 84% were constructed according to guidelines. In just 1.3% of the sessions, the story was read as intended. Regarding content, 67.4% of the stories focused on daily life excursions. Tactile stimuli were used most. Age related to stimuli choice, but not to content. Conclusions Although most books were properly constructed, guidelines were barely followed during reading which may negatively influence the effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the past decades the links between gesture and language have become intensively studied. For example, the emergence of requesting and commenting gestures has been found to signal the onset of intentional communication. Furthermore, in typically developing children, gestures play a transitional role in the acquisition of early lexical and syntactic milestones. Previous research has demonstrated that, particularly supplementary, gesture-word combinations not only precede, but also reliably predict the onset of two-word speech. However, the gestural correlates of two-word speech have rarely been studied in children with intellectual disabilities. Aims: The primary aim was to investigate developmental changes in speech and gesture use as well as to relate the use of gesture-word combinations to the onset of two-word speech in children with intellectual disabilities. A supplementary aim was to investigate differences in speech and gesture use between requests and comments in children with intellectual disabilities. Methods & Procedures: Participants in this study were 16 children with intellectual disabilities (eight girls, eight boys). Chronological ages at the start of the study were between 3;1 and 5;7 years; mental ages were between 1;5 and 3;3 years. Every 4 months within a 2-year period children's requests and comments were sampled during structured interactions. All gestures and words used communicatively to request and comment were transcribed. Outcomes & Results: Although children's use of spoken words as well as the diversity in their spoken vocabularies increased over time, gestures were used with a constant rate over time. Temporal tendencies similar to those described in typically developing children were observed: gesture-word combinations typically preceded, rather than followed, two-word speech. Furthermore, gestures (deictic gestures in particular) were more often used to request than to comment. Conclusions & Implications: Overall, gestures were used as a transitional tool towards children's first two-word utterances. This result highlights gesture use as a robust phenomenon during the early stages of syntactic development across populations. The observed differences in gesture use between requests and comments might be explained by differences in interactional as well as in procedural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Affective and reciprocal interactions with others are essential for persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), but it is a challenge to assess their quality. This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of instruments from parent-infant research to evaluate these interactions. Method Eighteen videotaped staff-client interactions were coded with the Emotional Availability Scales, the Maternal/Child Behavior Rating Scales, and the Revised Erickson Scales. Results The scales could generally be applied to persons with PIMD and substantial interobserver agreement was found. The tools' subscales appeared to be distinct but there was also evidence that they measure an overarching construct. Client and staff interactive behaviours were highly related. Convergent validity was demonstrated by strong correlations between theoretically related dimensions. An acceptable range in scores, a ceiling-effect, and relative high mean scores occurred. Conclusions The instruments' applicability and usefulness was demonstrated in this study, which offers directions for future research and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Because of limited communicative skills, it is not self-evident to measure subjective well-being in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. As a first step towards a non-interprative measure of subjective well-being, we explored how the respiratory, cardiovascular and electro dermal response systems were associated with the valence dimension of emotion. Material and Methods Three participants were presented with staff selected negative and positive stimuli. During the presentation we measured the participants’ respiration, skin conductance, heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). We used behavioural codings as an extra measure of emotional valence. Results Participants showed a shallow, fast breathing pattern, used less thoracic breathing, had a higher skin conductance and had less RSA when experiencing positive emotions then when experiencing negative emotions. Conclusion There are physiological differences between positive and negative emotions. The results also indicate that people with PIMD direct their attention away from negative stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Although high-structured elicitation tasks have been shown to be efficient means to sample communication in children with intellectual disabilities, their validity and reliability remain to be evaluated. The aims of this study were threefold: (i) to evaluate the eliciting potential, (ii) to examine the utterance forms of proto-imperative and proto-declarative intentions, and (iii) to evaluate the reliability of two high-structured elicitation tasks. Methods Twenty-eight children with intellectual disabilities participated in a standard assessment battery, consisting of a formal language assessment, a parent questionnaire, an elicitation task for proto-imperatives, and an elicitation task for proto-declaratives. Results The elicitation tasks elicited significantly more proto-imperatives than proto-declaratives; with proto-imperatives being predominantly expressed with gestures and proto-declaratives predominantly with vocalizations. Furthermore, medium to large correlations were found between the elicitation tasks and the other communication and language instruments. Conclusions Several factors need to be considered to account for the observed differences in frequency and utterance forms of the elicited proto-imperatives versus proto-declaratives. Nevertheless, the results overall suggest that the elicitation tasks for proto-imperatives and proto-declaratives can be reliably used in children with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study evaluates the effects of reminiscence group work on the subjective well-being of ageing people with intellectual disabilities. Methods The content of the successive group work sessions was manipulated as follows: a control-phase with three ‘current topics’ sessions, an experimental phase with six ‘reminiscence’ sessions and finally three ‘current topics’ sessions. Life satisfaction, perceived self-competence and mood were measured by questionnaires, filled in by the participants and direct support workers. Results A quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design ( n = 41) did not detect any changes in life satisfaction and perceived self-competence. For mood, a quasi-experimental ABA-design ( n = 41) did not yield an experimental treatment effect, but a significant increase in scores was observed over time. Personality characteristics ‘extraversion’ and ‘emotional stability’, but not memory specificity were found to be significant covariates for the mood scores. Conclusion Although the study’s design did not allow us to confirm the effect of reminiscence group work, the analysis nonetheless revealed some useful indications for further research. Also, interviews conducted before and after the programme resulted in positive appraisals of the programme as a worthwhile and meaningful activity for ageing people with intellectual disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors attempted to find out to what extent and in which ways, in Belgium, have Flemish services for people with intellectual disability adapted to the specific needs of aging people. A study was undertaken and a questionnaire was developed to address the following research topics: (1) accommodations and personnel, (2) staff working methods, and (3) staff views and attitudes. The questionnaire was completed by 66 coordinating staff members in as many facilities. At the time of our study, these services supported 310 (27%) persons with Down syndrome age 40 years and older and 833 (73%) persons with intellectual disability (other than Down syndrome) age 55 years and older. Adaptations in accommodation and personnel management were obvious in the majority of the participating services. The working methods reflected a person-centered philosophy, regardless of the age-factor. An exploratory factor analysis revealed three different staff approaches: an activating/socializing, disengaging, and methodical. Participation in activities and involvement in social relations have a prominent place in the staff's views. In general, the authors found that about two-thirds of the services have started to modify their accommodation and personnel to the needs of aging people with intellectual disability. The authors note also that the results suggest there is still a lot of work to do in improving staff training, introducing specific working methods, and in altering stereotypical staff attitudes to assure a good “aging in place.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined which support characteristics are associated with the quality of life (QOL) of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). The authors invited parents and direct support staff of people with PIMD to adopt the perspective of their child or the person with PIMD for whom they care. Some 76 parents and direct support staff of people with PIMD were interviewed, and to obtain data, transcripts were analyzed in-depth. The respondents mentioned: (1) characteristics with regard to the structure of the setting (physical environment, staff ratio, staff turnover, group size, and group composition); (2) characteristics with regard to the internal organization of the support (partnership, teamwork, interdisciplinarity, and support planning); and (3) characteristics with regard to the support staff (experience, sensitive responsiveness, commitment and motivation, physical strength, knowledge and skills, and self-reflection). The respondents considered structural as well as operating features of the support setting to be important for the QOL of people with PIMD. The authors conclude that their main emphasis, however, was on the central role of direct support staff in supporting people with PIMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considered the general validity of the basic domains of quality of life that appear in theoretical models, in relation to people with profound multiple disabilities. The authors examined how parents and direct support staff operationalized these basic domains for people with profound multiple disabilities. They investigated the effect of the support setting and age of people with profound multiple disabilities on this operationalization.A number (n = 76) of parents and direct support staff of people with profound multiple disabilities were interviewed. Transcripts were analysed in depth.Results showed that the five basic domains as described within the model of Felce&Perry [Research in Developmental Disabilities (1995) vol. 16, pp. 51–74;Quality of Life in Health Promotion and Rehabilitation Conceptual Approaches, Issues and Applications(1996a) Sage Publications;Quality of Life.Vol. I:Conceptualization and Measurement(1996b) American Association on Mental Retardation] were identified spontaneously by more than half of the respondents as being salient for the quality of life of people with profound multiple disabilities. When asked explicitly, this value rose to between 88.2 and 100%. The operationalization of these basic domains by parents and direct support staff differed in several aspects from operationalizations for other target groups. Neither age nor support setting turned out to have a significant effect on the operationalization.The results supported the multidimensionality of quality of life and the validity of the basic domains for people with profound multiple disabilities. The content of the domains of quality of life differed, however, to a considerable extent for people with profound multiple disabilities. Furthermore, these people are extremely dependent on others for the gratification of their needs and therefore for their quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]