Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two different speech therapy approaches, a traditional motor-phonetic approach and a linguistic-phonological approach, on the speech and health-related quality of life in Dutch-speaking children with a cleft palate with or without a cleft lip (CP ± L) between 4 and 12 years old.…

Introduction: Research has indicated that need-supportive learning environments positively influence students' motivation. According to self-determination theory, a need-supportive learning environment is one in which teachers provide structure, autonomy support, and involvement, and thereby support their students' psychological needs for…

The High Quality Communication intervention aims to stimulate interpersonal communication between individuals with congenital deaf-blindness (CDB) and their social partners. Found effective in multiple-case experiments, the intervention is based on Trevarthen's theory of intersubjective development (Bråten & Trevarthen, 2007), which describes…

This study examined the effects of a 20-week intervention to foster affective involvement during interaction and communication between an adult with congenital deafblindness (CDB) and his caregivers in a group home and a daytime activities center. Using a single-subject design, we examined whether the intervention increased affective involvement…

Introduction: In this study, we applied the Intervention Model for Affective Involvement (IMAI) to four participants who are congenitally deafblind and their 16 communication partners in 3 different settings (school, a daytime activities center, and a group home). We examined whether the intervention increased affective involvement between the…

Introduction: Delays in theory of mind (ToM) of children who are congenitally blind have often been attributed to the absence of visual and social experiences. However, these delays could also be partly due to neural factors. In some children, the blindness itself has neural causes (ocular-plus blindness). Children whose blindness has an…

Educators and children with congenital deaf-blindness experience major challenges in building interactions that are reciprocated and sustained. Studies have shown that affect attunement and sensitive responsiveness are crucial for a child to feel recognized and for synchronizing early conversations. The authors previously presented the Diagnostic…

Research on Self-Determination Theory has shown that teachers' need-supportive behaviour is associated with student motivation and engagement. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at increasing the motivation of students with congenital and acquired deafblindness by enhancing teachers' need-supportive…

Aim: The aim of this study was to improve the understanding of brain function in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in relation to minor neurological dysfunctions (MNDs). Method: We studied MNDs in 122 children (93 males, 29 females; mean age 8y 1mo, SD 2y 6mo) who, among a total cohort of 705 children (513 males, 192 females; mean age…

The aim of this study was to establish whether children with a physical disability resulting from central nervous system disorders (CNSd) show a level of arithmetic achievement lower than that of non-CNSd children and whether this is related to poor automaticity of number facts or reduced arithmetic instruction time. Twenty-two children with CNSd…

The aim of this study was to: (1) assess work participation among young adults with spina bifida, (2) identify problems perceived in finding employment, and (3) examine which determinants are related to work participation. This cross-sectional study was a follow-up study to the Adolescents with SPina bifida In the Netherlands (ASPINE) study. Data…

Empirical data on the development of interaction, communication, and language in deafblind children is very rare. To fill this gap, a case study was conducted in which the interaction between a teacher and a deafblind boy age 3 years 4 months was analyzed. Sequential analysis of their interaction confirmed some general clinical impressions about…

Objective: To examine psychopathology and influence of intelligence level on psychiatric symptoms in children with the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS). Method: Sixty patients, ages 9 through 18 years, were evaluated. Assessments followed standard protocols, including structured and semistructured interviews of parents, videotaped psychiatric…

This study examined articulation in 13 Dutch individuals (ages 7-29, IQs 38-83) with Prader-Willi syndrome using a picture naming test with transcribed samples subjected to analyses for articulation errors. Results suggest that the impaired articulation found is a function of IQ and that with increasing age, phonological problems gradually resolve…