Promoting ambulation responses among children with multiple disabilities through walkers and microswitches with contingent stimuli.
Children with severe or profound intellectual and motor disabilities often present problems of balance and ambulation and spend much of their time sitting or lying, with negative consequences for their development and social status. Recent research has shown the possibility of using a walker (support) device and microswitches with preferred stimuli to promote ambulation with these children. This study served as a replication of the aforementioned research and involved five new children with multiple disabilities. For four children, the study involved an ABAB design. For the fifth child, only an AB sequence was used. All children succeeded in increasing their frequencies of step responses during the B (intervention) phase(s) of the study, although the overall frequencies of those responses varied largely across them. These findings support the positive evidence already available about the effectiveness of this intervention approach in motivating and promoting children's ambulation. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Lancioni
Giulio E
GE
Department of Psychology, University of Bari, Via Quintino Sella 268, 70100 Bari, Italy. g.lancioni@psico.uniba.it
Singh
Nirbhay N
NN
O'Reilly
Mark F
MF
Sigafoos
Jeff
J
Oliva
Doretta
D
Smaldone
Angela
A
La Martire
Maria L
ML
Stasolla
Fabrizio
F
Castagnaro
Francesca
F
Groeneweg
Jop
J
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D004582:Electronics, Medical / Q000295:instrumentation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012656:Self-Help Devices; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014853:Walkers; D016138:Walking