“Read to me”- The effectiveness of Multi-Sensory Storytelling intervention on the responsiveness of youth with profound multiple disabilities in a Children’s Home and associated day-care centres in South-Africa.

Abstract

Purpose: The effectiveness of an adapted version of Multi-Sensory Storytelling (MSST) was examined in a sample of forty-four youths and young adults with Profound Multiple Disabilities, in a residence and associated day-cares in South Africa. MSST aims to improve responsiveness through reading stories with multi-sensory stimuli. Method: Development in responsiveness was examined on measures assessed during training, as well as a generalization test where a new untrained story was introduced. A matched therapy- and control-group as well as a within-group comparison was used to measure this progress. Results: Development in responsiveness after 10 training sessions was found, mainly during the second half of the training (after 5 sessions). The positive effects on the responsivity to the untrained story were small and were lost after a period 6 weeks without MSST. Also, the growth in responsiveness for the untrained story of previous year’s research was not maintained after 8 months of low frequency MSST training either. Conclusion: The findings suggest that MSST is a useful intervention method for individuals with PMD in South Africa, in that responsiveness increases during training. However, positive effects on the responsiveness with another untrained story were limited, and this gain was lost when training was stopped or continued with lower frequency. Further research on generalization and maintenance effects are recommended.