Measuring sustained interaction in adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities: Development of an observational coding system

Abstract

Sustained interaction with other people is of crucial importance for persons with deafblindness and multiple disabilities. This article introduces a relatively time-efficient observational coding system to measure sustained interaction directly from video recordings using only two observation categories: turns and interaction breakdowns. Sustained interaction is defined as a sequence of at least three turns between two interaction partners. An interaction breakdown means that a sequence is not being continued, but is broken off by one of the partners. This article also presents the results of a first study applying the coding system to videos of five adults with deafblindness and multiple disabilities and their caregivers. The system seems well applicable and provides supporting evidence regarding inter-observer reliability. The system can stimulate further research and intervention to increase sustained interaction.