Teachers' reponses to severely mentally handicapped children's initiations in the classroom

The Behavior Chain Interruption Strategy: A Review of Research and Discussion of Future Directions

This review examines research studies that utilize the behavior chain interruption strategy (BCIS) to teach communication skills to individuals with severe disabilities. The BCIS is a naturalistic teaching procedure that uses an interruption to a behavior chain (i.e., a routine) as the point of instruction. The BCIS has been successfully applied to the teaching of communication skills to individuals across a wide range of ages and of levels of disability, including learners with multiple disabilities. It has been employed to teach a range of communication forms, including pictorial communication systems, natural gestures, signing, and a switch activated communication device. However, a number of questions remain regarding the BCIS. In particular, it is questioned whether the type of interruptions employed in the procedure are likely to occur outside a training context and whether communication taught with the procedure generalizes to out-of-routine contexts. Implications for practice are considered and suggestions are offered for future research.

Communication among nurses and adults with severe and profound intellectual disabilities: predicted and observed strategies

This study explored communication strategies adopted by staff nurses in a residential centre in Ireland for persons with severe and profound intellectual disabilities. Interactions between staff nurses and service users were video recorded and analysed to determine the frequencies of verbal and non-verbal communication acts. Semi-structured and focus group interviews were carried out with the 10 participating staff nurses. Participants identified staff-related factors, the communicative environment, alternative methods of communication and choice as key elements in communicating with service users. No differences were observed in the frequency of verbal and non-verbal communicative acts. There was a discrepancy between what communicative acts the participants named as their preferred strategies and those observed when they interacted with service users. Most failed to adjust their language to meet service users' needs. The findings suggest that staff nurses do not always adopt optimal strategies in everyday interactions with individuals who use non-verbal communication. Continuing education in communication is recommended.