Joint attention behaviours in people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: the influence of the context.

Background: In spite of the profound cognitive and physical problems, people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) are able to develop joint attention behaviours (JAB) and benefit from positive interactions.

Aims: To investigate which context factors influence the JAB of people with PIMD.

Method: Based on video recordings of 45 participants, JAB and context factors were analysed.

The role of attention in the affective life of people with severe or profound intellectual disabilities.

Although it is shown that attention plays an important role both in the onset and in the regulation of emotions in people without disabilities there is no information about how attention is related to emotions in people with severe or profound intellectual disability (ID). Therefore, in our study, we investigated the role of attention in the onset and regulation of the emotions of persons with severe or profound ID. We presented 27 participants with 4 staff-selected negative and 4 staff-selected positive stimuli.

Attentional processes in interactions between people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and direct support staff.

Few studies have examined joint attention in interactions with persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), despite its important role in high-quality interaction. The purpose of this study is to describe the attention-directing behaviours of persons with PIMD and their direct support staff and the attention episodes resulting from their interactions, and to understand how these variables relate to each other. Video observations of 17 staff-client dyads were coded using partial interval recording.