PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study investigates non-verbal signs of resistance

Training and flexibility needed to help those with severe intellectual disabilities

2021-03-31
(Press-News.org) A new study examining how people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities resist activities while in care recommends that institutions improve training to help carers better understand non-verbal cues, as well as offer greater flexibility to allow individual preferences to take priority over institutional schedules.

The research, published in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, investigated how people with limited language ability expressed their wishes and preferences, and how their support workers responded. It was carried out at a residential home and a day care centre in the UK.

The study, by Dr Clare Nicholson of St Mary's University, Twickenham, and Dr Mick Finlay and Dr Steven Stagg of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), involved taking notes and filming everyday interactions such as feeding, drinking, art and music activities, and physiotherapy, over the course of a year.

The research found that the service users signalled in very subtle ways, usually non-verbally, when they did not want to do something. For people with severe disabilities, how well their care workers recognise and respond to these subtle behaviours is crucial to their autonomy and empowerment.

Behaviour which appeared to signal resistance to activities included pretending to be asleep, dropping tools such as paint brushes, turning the head or the gaze away from the care worker, pushing objects away, dragging feet along the ground to slow movement in a wheelchair, and making loud vocalisations.

When these behaviours were not responded to by care workers, who instead continued with the activity, the person would sometimes escalate their resistance to behaviour involving self-injury, such as thrashing their body around in a wheelchair, striking their own face, and digging their fingernails into their hands.

In addition to encouraging care workers to adopt greater flexibility around which activities take place and when, the authors believe further training using real life examples, such as those outlined in the study, could help staff better understand some of the common signs of resistance.

Co-author Dr Mick Finlay, Reader in Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Our research shows that people with severe intellectual disabilities can and do make responsible decisions regarding their wellbeing and wishes, and are able to indicate when they want to remove themselves from situations which make them distressed, bored or unhappy.

"However, for a person to act in a self-determined manner, they need to be able to communicate with others. Communication for people with severe intellectual disabilities is often non-verbal and can be ambiguous, and we found that this can present a challenge for their carers.

"We found that staff often continued to promote or even complete activities on behalf of the people they support, despite signs of resistance. This could be because the carer failed to pick up on the non-verbal cues. Or it could be because of a desire to maximise participation in activities or stick to a schedule.

"Institutional timetables need to be flexible enough to respect the everyday rights and choices of people with severe intellectual disabilities, and support staff need to have the ability to depart from fixed institutional agendas where appropriate, particularly when it would not cause detriment to the people in their care."

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Human hiking trails custom built for sauntering grizzlies

2021-03-31
In the run up to hibernation, grizzly bears go on a colossal binge, consuming as many calories as possible to get them through the long winter. Yet, little was known about how much energy the massive mammals use as they shamble around their rugged territories. 'Moving across the landscape in search of food can be a huge energetic expense for some animals', Carnahan says. Fortunately, the Washington State University Bear Research, Education and Conservation Center (WSU BREC), where Carnahan is based, is home to 11 bears, including four that formerly lived in Yellowstone National Park, so he and Charles Robbins (also at WSU BREC) decided to measure the animals' metabolic rates as they sauntered on the flat, and up and down gradients to find out how much ...

New research shows risk of COVID-19 from aerosols to healthcare workers

2021-03-31
New research published in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists) challenges the guidance that special aerosol precautions are only needed when using oxygen therapies for COVID-19 patients, and raises concerns about safety of staff and patients on hospital wards, if they are not protected from infectious aerosols. The study set out to examine whether oxygen therapies used for patients with severe COVID-19 produce large amounts of small respiratory particles called aerosols, which can transmit virus and can evade routine precautions used on hospital wards. ...

Modern analysis of rock art

Modern analysis of rock art
2021-03-31
Rock art of human figures created over thousands of years in Australia's Arnhem Land has been put through a transformative machine learning study to analyse style changes over the years. The study has tested different styles labelled 'Northern Running figures', 'Dynamic figures', 'Post Dynamic figures' and 'Simple figures with Boomerangs' to understand how these styles relate to one another. Working with the Mimal and Marrku Traditional Owners of the Wilton River area in Australia's Top End, South Australian researchers led by Flinders University archaeologist Dr Daryl Wesley have taken a closer look at the art of this region. Flinders researcher Jarrad Kowlessar and the team used machine learning ...

New tool assesses patients' home dialysis experience

2021-03-31
Highlights A newly developed tool assesses patients' home dialysis experience. The 26-item Home Dialysis Care Experience instrument will be a resource for future research use, clinical care, and quality improvement initiatives among home dialysis facilities and organizations. Washington, DC (March 30, 2021) -- Researchers have developed a new tool to assess patients' opinions and experience concerning home dialysis care. The tool is described in an upcoming issue of CJASN. Home dialysis, which includes both peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis, allows patients to receive their dialysis treatments at home, gives patients independence and flexibility ...

COVID-19-associated seizures may be common, linked to higher risk of death

2021-03-30
BOSTON - COVID-19 can have damaging effects on multiple organs in the body, including the brain. A new study led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) indicates that some hospitalized patients with COVID-19 experience non-convulsive seizures, which may put them at a higher risk of dying. The findings are published in the Annals of Neurology. "Seizures are a very common complication of severe critical illness. Most of these seizures are not obvious: Unlike seizures that make a person fall down and shake, or convulse, ...

Kumon or Montessori? It may depend on your politics, according to new study of 8,500 parents

2021-03-30
HOUSTON - (March 30, 2021) - Whether parents prefer a conformance-oriented or independence-oriented supplemental education program for their children depends on political ideology, according to a study of more than 8,500 American parents by a research team from Rice University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. "Conservative parents have a higher need for structure, which drives their preference for conformance-oriented programs," said study co-author Vikas Mittal, a professor of marketing at Rice's Jones Graduate School of Business. "Many parents ...

Architecture of Eolian successions under icehouse and greenhouse conditions

2021-03-30
Boulder, Colo., USA: Anthropogenic climate change is one of the foremost scientific and societal challenges. In part, our response to this global challenge requires an enhanced understanding of how the Earth's surface responds to episodes of climatic heating and cooling. As historical records extend back only a few hundred years, we must look back into the ancient rock record to see how the surface of the Earth has responded to shifts between icehouse (presence of ice at the Earth's poles) and greenhouse (no substantial ice at Earth's poles) climates in the past. In ...

Dementia and COVID: What families and physicians should know

2021-03-30
NEW YORK, NY (March 30, 2021)--Early in the pandemic, neurologists expressed concern that COVID-19 patients with dementia may be at higher risk for complications and mortality. But those fears have not been realized, according to a new study of patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in New York City. The study, led by James Noble, MD, MS, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, and Amro Harb, a Vagelos medical student, was published this month in ...

A second look at sunlight

2021-03-30
A year ago scientists everywhere were scrambling to get their minds around the SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that caused the pandemic from which we are only now beginning to emerge. The world clung to every new development, every bit of science that could provide clues to managing life in the presence of this mysterious killer. Many science-backed COVID-19 management concepts remain unchanged to this day: handwashing with soap and warm water disrupts the virus' lipid membrane. Social distancing can attenuate the virus's spread, ideally keeping it out of a host until it degrades. Other notions, such as droplet contact being the primary mode of transmission, were modified when emerging evidence showed that under ...

Endangered songbird challenging assumptions about evolution

2021-03-30
Not all species may travel the same path to existence, at least according to new findings from the University of Colorado Boulder and collaborators. This new research, out now in Science, looked at a newly discovered, endangered songbird located only in South America--the Iberá Seedeater--and found that this bird followed a very rare evolutionary path to come into existence at a much faster pace than the grand majority of species. By comparing this bird to a closely related neighbor (the Tawny-Bellied Seedeater) in the same group (the southern capuchino seedeaters), the researchers determined that genetic shuffling of existing variations, rather than new random mutations, brought this species into existence--and their ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time

‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’

Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible

Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound

American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration

Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce

Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care

Resident physician intentions regarding unionization

[Press-News.org] Study investigates non-verbal signs of resistance
Training and flexibility needed to help those with severe intellectual disabilities