Children with profound intellectual disabilities metod of communication in family environments in new situational contexts part II

Abstract

The first part of the article presents the characteristics of communication of a child with profound intellectual disability with an adult in the family environment in a familiar situational context during dressing and undressing activities. The second part of the article describes the activity of dressing and undressing in a new situational context (compared to the first part, one context selected by parents from five possible ones, such as place, time, accessories, adult participant, actions of an adult participant of the interaction, has changed. In the conducted research, a qualitative research orientation, as well as the method of observation, the technique of observing samples of events and the authors Sheet for Observation, Analysis and Interpretation of Communicative Behaviour in a Communicative Situation were used. The research material was developed according to the planned stages: (1) analysis of the collected recordingsdescription of the situational context, recording of the childs and adults communicative behaviour; (2) analysis of the childs communicative behaviouridentification of non-verbal and verbal communicative behaviour according to the communicative channels of children with profound intellectual disability(breathing, body signals, facial expression, eye expression, gestures, posture/body position, speech); (3) interpretation of observed communicative behaviours assigning characteristics (effectiveness and appropriateness) to communicative behaviour and attempting to give them meaning (identifying childrens behaviour that may indicate attempts to initiate, maintain or interrupt interactions). The article includes an analysis of fragments of communication situations, which was aim at drawing conclusions about the factors determining the effectiveness and appropriateness of communication of a child with profound intellectual disability. An attempt was also made to consider the impact of changes made in the course of dressing and undressing activities. The presented article is part of the nationwide research that was carried out as part of the doctoral dissertation entitled Communication of children with profound intellectual disability in the family environment in familiar and new situational contexts.