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Describing dialogue between persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and direct support staff using the scale for dialogical meaning making
Author(s) -
Hostyn I.,
Daelman M.,
Janssen M. J.,
Maes B.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01292.x
Subject(s) - dialogical self , meaning (existential) , psychology , scale (ratio) , perspective (graphical) , intellectual disability , qualitative research , rating scale , meaning making , value (mathematics) , social psychology , developmental psychology , psychotherapist , sociology , psychiatry , computer science , social science , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , machine learning
Background The dialogical approach of meaning making forms a rich and renewing theoretical perspective to study communication between presymbolic communicators and their interaction partners. The aim of this study is to investigate whether an observation scale based on the dialogical theory, the Scale for Dialogical Meaning Making (S‐DMM), has potential to describe these communicative interactions. Methods Eighteen videotaped observations of persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and their support staff were coded using the S‐DMM and a consensus‐rating procedure. Results Sufficient inter‐rater agreement and an acceptable range in scores confirm the usefulness of the S‐DMM. Strong sub‐scale intercorrelations were identified. The quantitative scores and the qualitative arguments supporting the ratings, demonstrate how the S‐DMM aids to significantly describe staff–client dialogue. Conclusions Using the S‐DMM to describe dialogue with persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities appears to be promising. The value of the S‐DMM and its consensus‐rating procedure are reflected upon and discussed with regard to implications for research and practice.