Assisting persons with multiple disabilities to move through simple occupational activities with automatic prompting.

Full Abstract

The present study assessed the possibility of assisting four persons with multiple disabilities to move through and perform simple occupational activities arranged within a room with the help of automatic prompting. The study involved two multiple probe designs across participants. The first multiple probe concerned the two participants with blindness or minimal vision and deafness, who received air blowing as a prompt. The second multiple probe concerned the two participants with blindness and typical hearing who received a voice calling as a prompt. Initially, all participants had baseline sessions. Then intervention started with the first participant of each dyad. When their performance was consolidated, new baseline and intervention occurred with the second participant of each dyad. Finally, all four participants were exposed to a second intervention phase, in which the number of activities per session doubled (i.e., from 8 to 16). Data showed that all four participants: (a) learned to move across and perform the activities available with the help of automatic prompting and (b) remained highly successful through the second intervention phase when the sessions were extended. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Author information

Author/s: Lancioni, Giulio E (GE); Singh, Nirbhay N (NN); O'Reilly, Mark F (MF); Sigafoos, Jeff (J); Oliva, Doretta (D); Campodonico, Francesca (F); Groeneweg, Jop (J);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bari, Bari, Italy. g.lancioni(-atsign-)psico.uniba.it

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Research in developmental disabilities (Res Dev Disabil), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2008 Sep-Oct; vol 29 (issue 5) : pp 439-46

Dates: Created 2008/06/30; Completed 2008/11/04;

PMID: 17890053, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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