Developing reciprocity between one-year-old children with visual impairment and additional disabilities and their mothers: The effects of bodily-tactile early intervention

Reciprocal interactions between parents and their children with visual impairment (VI) and additional disabilities (AD) may be compromised due to the children's disabilities. Children with VIAD may not be able to access their parents' nonverbal expressions, such as gazes or facial gestures. Moreover, the children's expressions can be difficult for their parents to read. The bodily-tactile modality can be used in interactions to compensate for a child's lack of vision. This multiple-case study investigated the effects of a bodily-tactile early intervention on interactional reciprocity in three sighted mothers and their one-year-old children with VIAD. The data consisted of eight hours of video recordings from four baseline, eight intervention, and three follow-up sessions. Baseline and intervention recordings were made weekly. The follow-up recordings were made one week, five weeks, and nine weeks after the last intervention session. The video data were analyzed using the principles of multimodal conversation analysis. The sequential analysis showed that interactive reciprocity between the mothers and their children increased during the intervention. The mothers began to use more of the bodily-tactile modality in early social play routines. Moreover, they started to treat their children's movements as meaningful turns in interaction and to give more time and space for their children to take their turns. The results suggest that the bodily actions of children with VIAD can become resources for their participation through their mothers' actions.