Measuring sustained interaction in adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities: Development of an observational coding system

Abstract

Sustained interaction with other people is of crucial importance for persons with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. This article introduces a relatively time-efficient observational coding system to measure sustained interaction directly from video recordings using only two observation categories: turns and interaction breakdowns. Sustained interaction is defined as a sequence of at least three turns between two interaction partners. An interaction breakdown means that a sequence is not being continued, but is broken off by one of the partners. This article also presents the results of a first study applying the coding system to videos of five adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities and their caregivers. The system seems well applicable and provides supporting evidence regarding inter-observer reliability. The system can stimulate further research and intervention to increase sustained interaction.

Keywords

Adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities interaction breakdown interaction quality measuring sustained interaction observational coding system

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