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Self-Regulated Versus Staff-Regulated Stimulation for Promoting Indices of Satisfaction in Persons with Severe/Profound and Multiple Disabilities

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Abstract

People with severe/profound and multiple disabilities may receive insufficient stimulation and correspondingly show low levels of happiness (satisfaction). Various stimulation strategies have been proposed to address this situation. This study aimed to extend the assessment of two of those strategies (i.e., self-regulated and staff-regulated stimulation strategies) with 12 participants who were exposed to each strategy. During intervention sessions with self-regulated stimulation, the participants sat at a desk and received stimulation if they pushed a panel in front of them thus activating a smartphone’s proximity sensor. During intervention sessions with staff-regulated stimulation, they sat at a desk and received stimulation independent of any response. All participants showed increases in indices of satisfaction with self-regulated stimulation. Nine of them also showed such increases with staff-regulated stimulation. The participants’ level of satisfaction during self-regulated stimulation sessions was frequently higher than that observed during staff-regulated stimulation sessions. Staff personnel interviewed about the two strategies provided higher scores for self-regulated stimulation. The self-regulated stimulation strategy may be considered preferable to the staff-regulated stimulation strategy because of its impact on participants’ satisfaction and active responding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience and Sense Organs, University of Bari, Corso Italia 23, 70121, Bari, Italy

    Giulio E. Lancioni

  2. Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University, Augusta, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

  3. Department of Special Education, University of Texas, Austin, USA

    Mark F. O’Reilly

  4. School of Education, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

    Jeff Sigafoos

  5. Department of Economics, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy

    Emanuela Resta

  6. Lega F. D’Oro Research Center, Osimo, Italy

    Francesca Campodonico, Gloria Alberti & Valeria Chiariello

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  1. Giulio E. Lancioni
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Correspondence to Giulio E. Lancioni.

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Lancioni, G.E., Singh, N.N., O’Reilly, M.F. et al. Self-Regulated Versus Staff-Regulated Stimulation for Promoting Indices of Satisfaction in Persons with Severe/Profound and Multiple Disabilities. J Dev Phys Disabil 33, 137–152 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-020-09737-x

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