Challenging behaviour in an adult male with congenital deaf-blindness: analysis and intervention

Abstract

People with severe congenital disabilities have been assessed on negatives, on what they do not have. Skill training and education of these missing abilities have been the major focus for the habilitation since emergence of the normalization ideology in the 1960s. Developmental theories and movements like quality of life and positive psychology have changed focus from training and education to well-being and other internal states in people with disabilities. This article describes how challenging behaviour vanished in a deaf-blind man when developmental theory was applied as the framework for his habilitation. Emotional processing and initiatives increased and the man became easier to understand for the staff. The special case of a deaf-blind man illustrates how simple a focus on internal states may slip and be exchanged for intervention dominated by demands and training.

Deafblindness: A review of the literature

“…Responding to the child’s attention cues, such as head turning, may lead to shared attention. The education of individuals with congenital deafblindness has been researched from an early communicative and social interaction development perspective, which has been documented in the literature in the form of case-based evidence and descriptions of methods employed when supporting people with congenital deafblindness [73,74,77–80]. Additionally, a few reviews concerning the efficiency or quality of intervention methods have been published [79–84].…”

Effect of Tactile Imitation Guidance on Imitation and Emotional Availability. A Case Report of a Mother and Her Child With Congenital Deafblindness

“…Poor communication with others is related to emotional and behavioral problems in children with developmental disabilities ( Sigafoos, 2000 ; Kevan, 2003 ). Thus, the emotional and behavioral disturbances that are common in persons with CDB ( Van Dijk and de Kort, 2005 ; Jacobsen et al, 2009 ; Nelson et al, 2013 ) may be attributable to limited communicational abilities. Accordingly, providing support and guidance to parents and their children to improve their reciprocal communication and emotional connection to each other may result in preventing the development of emotional and behavioral problems in children with CDB ( Martens et al, 2014a ,b).…”

Relation Between the School Environment and the Children's Behaviour

“…This executive function is related to the process of regulation occurring in the cortex, when action is initiated in the limbic system [45]. This cortical activity works in the same way when regulating behaviour as when regulating emotions [46,47]. When this system is not working successfully, unwanted behaviour and emotional reactions will be like the spontaneous reactions in small children.…”