Assessment of the Adaptive Behavior of Young Children with Visual Impairments in an Early Intervention Service
: A Pilot Study
IPC
- Caron, Valerie ORCID University of Fribourg
- 2024
English
Introduction: Adaptive behavior, defined as a critical set of skills learned and performed
throughout daily life to cope with society’s age-appropriate expectations, is a central concept for
people with disabilities in both clinical and research contexts. As AB is an essential component of
daily functioning, assessment is necessary both for the diagnostic process and for intervention, as it
enables scores to be compared with the developmental norm, identifies strengths and weaknesses
of the persons and monitors the progress of interventions. AB assessment is common in children
with developmental delays but less common in children with visual impairment (VI). The aim of
this study was to evaluate the AB of young children with VI through a pilot study and descriptive
data. Methods: The participants were recruited through an early childhood special needs education
service specialized in VI in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Overall, 10 families gave their
consent for their child to be assessed using the Vineland Adaptative Behavior Scale-II (VABS-II)
completed by their early childhood educator. Results: Globally, the results showed that participants
were rated between the Adapted to Moderately High levels. The highest domains were in the areas
of communication, daily living skills and socialization. Discussion: The results showed a trend that
is superior to previous studies assessing the AB of a similar population. As a result, one obvious
perspective would be to adapt the scale to ensure that the items assessed are more consistent with the
specificities of their development and the intervention priorities, enabling them to achieve adaptive
behavior and independence in carrying out activities of daily living.
throughout daily life to cope with society’s age-appropriate expectations, is a central concept for
people with disabilities in both clinical and research contexts. As AB is an essential component of
daily functioning, assessment is necessary both for the diagnostic process and for intervention, as it
enables scores to be compared with the developmental norm, identifies strengths and weaknesses
of the persons and monitors the progress of interventions. AB assessment is common in children
with developmental delays but less common in children with visual impairment (VI). The aim of
this study was to evaluate the AB of young children with VI through a pilot study and descriptive
data. Methods: The participants were recruited through an early childhood special needs education
service specialized in VI in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Overall, 10 families gave their
consent for their child to be assessed using the Vineland Adaptative Behavior Scale-II (VABS-II)
completed by their early childhood educator. Results: Globally, the results showed that participants
were rated between the Adapted to Moderately High levels. The highest domains were in the areas
of communication, daily living skills and socialization. Discussion: The results showed a trend that
is superior to previous studies assessing the AB of a similar population. As a result, one obvious
perspective would be to adapt the scale to ensure that the items assessed are more consistent with the
specificities of their development and the intervention priorities, enabling them to achieve adaptive
behavior and independence in carrying out activities of daily living.
- Faculty
- Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Department
- Département de Pédagogie spécialisée
- Language
-
- English
- Other electronic version
- License
- License undefined
- Open access status
- green
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/331733
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