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Publication

One of a kind. The analysis of early communicative behaviours of young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delays

Book - Dissertation

Children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delays (SDD) tend to have very limited communicative repertoires. They most often communicate on a pre-symbolic and pre-intentional level through idiosyncratic utterances such as facial expressions, changes in muscle tone, bodily movements, vocalisations, and occasionally challenging behaviours (Daelman, 2003; Grove, Bunning, Porter, & Olsson, 1999; Hostyn, Daelman, Janssen & Maes, 2010; Hostyn & Maes, 2009). Also, in children with developmental disabilities, the communicative development is often disturbed, which results in a delayed and/or different development of communicative skills (e.g., Abbeduto, Warren, & Conners, 2007; Grove, Bunning, Porter, & Olsson, 1999). Therefore, it is very difficult for professionals, but also for parents and other caregivers, to know which abilities may be acquired by these children, and at what time and in which way developmental outcomes may be stimulated (Goldbart, Chadwick, & Buell, 2014; 2016). Additionally, because of the severity, multiplicity and complexity of their limitations, a valid assessment of their developmental abilities is not easy feasible. Specifically in this target group, Research on communicative development is scarce and also very challenging because of some important methodological issues. For that reason, in this dissertation the aim is to characterise and describe in a detailed way the communicative abilities and development of these children with SDD, and to obtain more insight in the influencing characteristics, of both children and their context, on their communicative development. The objectives of this PhD-project are (1) to develop a detailed and systematic way to analyse communicative behaviours in children with SDD (chapter 1 & 2), (2) to study group and individual characteristics of early communicative behaviours of these children (chapter 3 & 4), (3) to obtain insight in their communicative development and in the complex interplay of several developmental domains (chapter 5). In chapter 1, the Communication Matrix (Rowland, 2011) was used to make a general estimation of the children's communicative functioning. However, we suspected a lot more variability which was not elucidated by this instrument. Therefore, in chapter 2, we explored a new way to analyse the observational data enabling us to describe the early communicative behaviours of young children with SDD in greater detail and developed a new coding scheme. With this coding scheme, thick descriptions of potential communicative acts are coded three main coding categories of child behaviour, partner behaviour and contextual aspects, each with its subcoding categories and codes. In chapter 3 several aspects are described of the communicative behaviour of young children with SDD, based on the output of the coding scheme. Next to this, the study also provides some concrete suggestions on how to interact with children with a SDD and how to organise the interaction. In chapter 4 the conclusion was that all participants showed unique profiles with regard to their communicative functioning. Finally, in chapter 5, over the course of two years, all participants were found to show unique trajectories regarding a myriad of aspects related to their communicative behaviour, as well as to important motor skills. This indicates that if a magnifying glass is used, unique strengths can be identified, and that all children with SDD do tend to develop with regard to their communicative skills, but that they do at their own pace and in their own order. Finally, we hope that this dissertation will encourage professionals and parents to hold on to this belief and to keep on to invest in mutual rewarding interactions and to keep on seeing what their children mean with their communicative acts. After all, undoubtedly, they are all one of a kind.
Publication year:2022
Accessibility:Embargoed