Persons with severe to profound multiple disabilities, such as intellectual, visual, and motor disabilities, may be characterized by low levels of adaptive engagement with the environment. They may also display forms of inappropriate, stereotypical behavior (like hand mouthing, that is, putting their fingers into or over their mouths) or…

Persons with profound visual impairments and other disabilities, such as neuromotor and intellectual disabilities, may encounter serious orientation and mobility problems even in familiar indoor environments, such as their homes. Teaching these persons to develop maps of their daily environment, using miniature replicas of the areas or some…

Enabling persons with intellectual or multiple disabilities to carry out personal care tasks (such as washing and dressing) independent of guidance from parents or staff members and without prolonged interruptions is often difficult, particularly with persons whose disabilities also include visual impairments. Attempts were recently made to curb…

Students with multiple disabilities, such as severe to profound mental retardation combined with motor and visual impairment, are usually unable to engage in constructive activity or play a positive role in their daily context. Microswitches are technical tools that may help them improve their status by allowing them to control environmental…

Two students (ages 7 and 8) who were totally blind with profound motor impairments and mental retardation were provided with optic microswitches. The use of optic microswitches for simple hand responses, combined with the availability of pleasant stimuli for the responses, proved successful with both students. (Contains 9 references.) (CR)

A study involving four adults with multiple disabilities found that they not only could be taught to engage cooperatively in tasks with clearly discriminate response components, but that they preferred forms of cooperative engagement to individual engagement. The need for structured training strategies to teach engagement is stressed. (Contains…

Microswitches are critical tools that can help people with multiple disabilities control aspects of their environment, including their favorite environmental stimuli through simple responses (Crawford & Schuster, 1993; Gutowski, 1996). One such response may be vocalization (that is, any brief sound emission) (Lancioni, O?Reilly, Oliva, & Coppa,…

Persons with multiple disabilities often have limited functioning of their lower limbs and tend to spend large amounts of time sitting in a wheelchair. Efforts to enable some of these persons (that is, those who are in better overall physical condition) to make some use of their legs may involve the use of support walkers. The risk may be even…

The use of microswitches has been considered a crucial strategy to help individuals with extensive multiple disabilities overcome passivity and achieve control of environmental stimulation (Crawford & Schuster, 1993; Gutowski, 1996; Ko, McConachie, & Jolleff, 1998). In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to extend the evaluation of…

This study assessed the possibility of guiding a person with blindness and intellectual disability during indoor travel with fewer auditory cues. Results indicated that infrequent presentation of the cues and the provision of extra cues in case of errors maintained high levels of independent moves, albeit of increased duration. (Author/CR)