Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Computer-Assisted Well-Body Assessment of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Program Description, Implementation Integrity, and Social Validation

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We describe a computer-assisted program for conducting well-body assessments of children with neurodevelopmental disabilities attending a private special education school. Classroom instructors completed daily assessments to detect the presence of bodily injuries and other skin trauma, determine the need for medical treatment, and monitor healing status. Evaluations performed with the classroom instructors revealed that they implemented the program with high integrity and rated several procedural components favorably. Compared to “paper form” data recording, clinicians and supervisors judged the computer-assisted program to track student injuries more thoroughly and record student injuries more accurately. The importance of health monitoring among persons with neurodevelopmental disabilities, advantages of technology-based assessment methods, and practice considerations are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Daniels, A. C., & Daniels, J. E. (2004). Performance management: Changing behavior that drives organizational effectiveness. Performance management Publications.

  • Edwards, J., Mold, F., Knivett, D., Boulter, P., Firn, M., & Carey, N. (2018). Quality improvement of physical health monitoring for people with intellectual disabilities: An integrative review. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 62(3), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12447

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Finlayson, J., Morrison, J., Jackson, A., Mantry, D., & Cooper, S. A. (2010). Injuries, falls, and accidents among adults with intellectual disabilities: Prospective cohort study. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54(11), 966–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01319.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, W. W., Rodriguez, N. M., Luczynski, K. C., & Kelley, M. E. (2013). The use of protective equipment in the management of severe behavior disorders. In D. D. Reed, F. D. DiGennaro Reed, & J. K. Luiselli (Eds.), Handbook of Crisis Intervention and Developmental Disabilities (pp. 87–105). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6531-7_6

  • Gravina, N., & Matey, N. (2020). Safety and injury prevention. In J. K. Luiselli, R. M. Gardner, F. L. Bird, & H. Maguire (Eds.), Organizational behavior management (OBM) approaches for intellectual and developmental disabilities. Routledge.

  • Hartz, R. M., Butler, B. L., Natale, K. R., Williams, S., and Luiselli, J. K. (2019). Effects of a peer-mediated performance improvement intervention on recording of child well-body checks by educational care providers. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities. Published online: 8 May 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744629519847309

  • Iwata, B. A., Pace, G. M., Kissel, R. C., Nau, P. A., & Farber, J. M. (1990). The Self-Injury Trauma (SIT) Scale: A method for quantifying surface tissue damage caused by self-injurious behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 23, 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1990.23-99

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kazdin, A. E. (2011). Single-case research designs: Methods for clinical and applied settings (2nd edition). Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotagal, S., & Broomall, E. (2012). Sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder. Pediatric Neurology, 47, 242–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2012.05.007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lesser, A. D., Luczynski, K. C., & Hood, S. A. (2019). Evaluating motion detection to score sleep disturbance for children: A translational approach to developing a measurement system. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 52, 580–599. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.531

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Luiselli, J. K. (2011). Therapeutic implementation of physical restraint. In J. K. Luiselli (Ed.), The handbook of high-risk challenging behaviors in intellectual and developmental disabilities (pp. 243–256). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

  • Luiselli, J. K., Gardner, R. M., Bird, F. L., & Maguire, H. (Eds.) (2021). Organizational behavior management (OBM) approaches for intellectual and developmental disabilities. Routledge.

  • Luiselli, J. K., & Fischer, A. J. (Eds.) (2016). Computer-assisted and web-based innovations in psychology, special education, and health. Elsevier/Academic Press.

  • Meir, L., Strand, L. I., & Alice, K. (2012). A model for pain behavior in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 33, 1984–1989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2012.05.028

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Regnard, C., Reynolds, J., Watson, B., Matthews, D., Gibson, L., & Clarke, C. (2007). Understanding distress in people with severe communication difficulties: Developing and assessing the disability distress assessment tool (DisDAT). Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 51(4), 277–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00875.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reid, D. H. (2017). Competency-based staff training. In J. K. Luiselli (Ed.), Applied behavior analysis advanced guidebook: A manual for professional practice (pp. 21–40). Elsevier/Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rooker, G. W., Hagopian, L. P., Becraft, J. L., Javed, N., Fisher, A. B., & Finney, K. S. (2020). Injury characteristics across functional class of self-injurious behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(2), 1042–1057. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.368es

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild, A. W., Ricciardi, J. N., & Luiselli, J. K. (2019). Assessing pain in adults with intellectual disability: A descriptive and qualitative evaluation of ratings and impressions among care-providers. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 31, 219–230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-019-09663-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schriesheim, C. A., & Hill, K. D. (1981). Controlling acquiescence response bias by item reversals: The effect on questionnaire validity. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41, 1101–1104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sherrard, J., Ozanne-Smith, J., & Staines, C. (2004). Prevention of unintentional injury to people with intellectual disability: A review of the evidence. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 48(2), 639–645. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2003.00570.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shlesinger, A., Duhanyan, J., Bird, F., Harper, J. M., & Luiselli, J. K. (2020). Description, implementation integrity, and social validity of a computer-assisted sleep monitoring system among residential care providers of students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 32, 365–374. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-019-09698-w

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturmey, P. (2015). Reducing restraint and restrictive behavior management practices. Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilder, D. A., Cymbal, D., & Villacorta, J. (2020). The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services: A brief review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53, 1170–1176. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.676

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yanagita, B. T., Becirevic, A., & Reed, D. D. (2016). Computer-assisted technologies for collecting and summarizing behavioral data. In J. K. Luiselli & A. J. Fischer (Eds.), Computer-assisted and web-based innovations in psychology, special education, and health (pp. 95–116). Elsevier/Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James K. Luiselli.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

School administrators reviewed and approved the procedures that were implemented in this program evaluation and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards..

Informed Consent

All parents consented to the physical monitoring and health assessment conducted with their children.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shlesinger, A., Bird, F., Harper, J.M. et al. Computer-Assisted Well-Body Assessment of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Program Description, Implementation Integrity, and Social Validation. J Dev Phys Disabil 34, 693–704 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-021-09821-w

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-021-09821-w

Keywords

Navigation