Enhancing the Quality of Interaction Between Deafblind Children and Their Educators

Abstract

This study examined the effects of an educator-oriented intervention program to improve the quality of the interactions between deafblind children and their professional educators. Four deafblind children, aged 6–9 years, and their 14 educators took part in the experiment. The educators were trained to respond more adequately to a selected set of appropriate and inappropriate interactive child behaviors. In three of the four children, the mean percentage appropriate interactive behaviors increased with intervention (with a gain of 47.2% across the four children). The number of inappropriate child behaviors also decreased. These positive effects manifested themselves across the various intervention situations and were accompanied by an increase in the mean percentage appropriate responses on the part of the educators. Results suggest that the improvement in the children's interactive competence was indeed caused by improved educator behavior.