Teaching Adults With Intellectual Disability Manual Signs Through Their Support Staff: A Key Word Signing Program

Meuris, Kristien; Maes, Beatrijs; Zink, Inge

doi:10.1044/2015_ajslp-14-0062

Cited by 41 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…When staff consistently provide augmented input, clients are also more inclined to generalize AAC/KWS skills to other settings (Dodd & Gorey, 2014;Schepis et al, 1982). In one study by Meuris, Maes, and Zink, (2015), 12 months after direct support staff had initiated KWS implementation in a group residential home for adults with intellectual disabilities, clients used significantly more KWS and their spoken language skills were reported to have improved.…”

Section: Staff Use Of Abstractigningmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…In addition, direct support staff appear to exhibit considerable variability in their use of KWS. For example, in the study by Meuris et al (2015), staff produced 0-38 manual signs during a 5-min staff-client conversation; in a study by Rombouts, Maes, and Zink, (2016a), staff supported between 5% and 75% of their utterances with KWS during a 10-min staff-client conversation. In 73% of Flemish services for adults with intellectual disabilities where KWS was implemented, the majority of direct support staff could produce fewer than 10 manual signs, whereas most clients (67%) were estimated to produce more than 10 distinct manual signs (Meuris et al 2014).…”

Section: Staff Use Of Abstractigningmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Beliefs and habits: staff experiences with key word signing in special schools and group residential homes

Rombouts

Maes

Zink

2017

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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Even though use of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) by staff has been extensively researched, few studies relate to unaided AAC strategies such as key word signing (KWS). We explored the KWS views of two groups: direct support staff in group residential homes and teachers from special education secondary schools. We examined transcripts from individual semi-structured interviews with five direct support staff and five teachers using thematic analysis. Participants discussed consistency of KWS use and reasons for implementing KWS. Compared to direct support staff, teachers described more use of KWS throughout the day with more individuals with intellectual disability. Teachers discussed use of KWS to facilitate students' present and future interactions, while direct support staff primarily discussed immediate effects. Participants experienced KWS implementation as a learning process and aimed to turn the use of manual signs into a routine habit. This required considerable self-monitoring, and the effort that this continuous self-feedback required, combined with environmental factors, could hinder KWS implementation. These preliminary findings suggest that preservice KWS training and on-site KWS assistance may need to be enhanced.

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Section: Staff Use Of Abstractigningmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Staff Use Of Abstractigningmentioning

confidence: 97%

Beliefs and habits: staff experiences with key word signing in special schools and group residential homes

Rombouts

Maes

Zink

2017

Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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“…These findings suggest that caution must be exercised before concluding that problems with constituent order are due to language or cognitive impairment, rather than the communication environment in which individuals operate. Although Meuris et al (2015) claim that consistent use of KWS input will resolve the symmetry problem, they only looked at the number and frequency of signs used by staff and users of the service. However, when Assessing language skills key word signers 2/11/2016 9 considering how language can develop through KWS, it is the distribution of signs in the input which is relevant: sequential patterns;, the relationship between sign and speech, and which constituents are involved.…”

Section: Processes Underpinning Abstractigningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing language skills in adult key word signers with intellectual disabilities: Insights from sign linguistics

Grove

Woll²

2017

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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Manuel signing is one of the most widely used approaches to support the communication and language skills of children and adults who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, and problems with communication in spoken language. A recent series of papers reporting findings from this population raises some critical issues for professionals in the assessment of multimodal language skills of key word signers. Approaches to assessment will differ depending on whether key word signing (KWS) is viewed as discrete from, or related to, natural sign languages. Two available assessments from these different perspectives are compared. Procedures appropriate to the assessment of sign language production are recommended as a valuable addition to the clinicians' toolkit. Sign and speech need to be viewed as multimodal, complementary communicative endeavours, rather than as polarities.Whilst narrative has been shown to be a fruitful context for eliciting language samples, assessments for adult users should be designed to suit the strengths, needs and values of adult signers with intellectual disabilities, using materials that are compatible with their life course stage rather than those designed for young children. Keywords:Intellectual disability; Augmentative and alternative communication; Manual signing; Sign language; Key word signing; Narrative task; Language assessment I. BackgroundAssessing language skills key word signers 2/11/2016 2 Manual signing is one of the most widely used approaches to support the communication and language skills of children and adults who have intellectual or developmental disabilities, and problems with communication in spoken language. This paper considers some of the issues involved for professionals in assessing the language skills of key word signers and discusses some of the methodological problems raised by a recent paper on the topic.

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“…Teachers and direct support staff are frequent communication partners of individuals with intellectual disabilities and can play an important role in day‐to‐day AAC implementation (Smith & Connolly, ; Kent‐Walsh et al, ; Meuris et al, ). By using KWS, staff may clarify their communication and adapt their language level (Loncke et al, , ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kaiser & Wright, ; Dodd & Gorey, ). After direct support staff modelled and prompted KWS, individuals with intellectual disabilities increased their use of KWS (Schepis et al, ; Carter, ; Meuris et al, ). In cross‐sectional studies, a positive association was found between the use of manual signs by individuals with intellectual disabilities and staff (Grove & McDougall, ; Rombouts et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of key word signing by staff in special schools and in day centres for adults with intellectual disabilities

Rombouts

Maes

Zink

2017

J intellect Disabil Res

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Background Staff may encourage individuals with intellectual disabilities to use manual signs by modelling its use, but implementing key word signing during daily activities can be demanding. Method Staff's use of manual signs was observed in four special schools and four day centres for adults with intellectual disabilities during communicative group activities, non-communicative group activities and mealtimes. Using in situ partial interval coding, we measured staff's communication rate, semantic diversity of manual signs, sign reinforcement and sign imitation. With Chi-squared tests, associations were measured between these variables, the two settings and the three activity types. Results During communicative activities, staff used manual signs significantly more in adult services than special schools. During non-communicative activities and mealtimes, staff seldom used or reinforced signs. Conclusions Staff communicated frequently but did not often model sign use during daily activities. To investigate influence from training background, further detailed measurements are warranted.

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Teaching Adults With Intellectual Disability Manual Signs Through Their Support Staff: A Key Word Signing Program

Abstract: The KWS program was successful and can be applied in similar clinical settings.

Cited by 41 publications

References 44 publications

Beliefs and habits: staff experiences with key word signing in special schools and group residential homes

Beliefs and habits: staff experiences with key word signing in special schools and group residential homes

Assessing language skills in adult key word signers with intellectual disabilities: Insights from sign linguistics

Use of key word signing by staff in special schools and in day centres for adults with intellectual disabilities

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