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. The article discusses whether the framework employed in the present intervention should be present in all kind of habilitation.
Highlights
For several decades normalization has been the theoretical foundation and aim of the habilitation of individuals with severe congenital disabilities, both in Norway and in most other Western countries (Dykens 2006; Holm, Holst, and Perlt 1994; Solum 1993; Wolfensberger 1972)
David The current study presents a 28-year-old deaf-blind man, ‘David’, who lived in a small housing unit together with three other people diagnosed with deaf-blindness
Staff members took 59 initiatives to interact with David, while David took 7 initiatives to interact with staff members
Summary
For several decades normalization has been the theoretical foundation and aim of the habilitation of individuals with severe congenital disabilities, both in Norway and in most other Western countries (Dykens 2006; Holm, Holst, and Perlt 1994; Solum 1993; Wolfensberger 1972). Dykens (2006) states that caregivers and researchers in the mental retardation field for decades have stressed physical life conditions and adaptive behaviour in this population, and that we know next to nothing about their positive internal states. This focus has led to diagnosis based on negatives, on what people do not have (Dykens 2006)
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