The Emotional Well Being of Deaf Infants and the role of Video Interaction Guidance VIG

1
The Emotional Well Being of Deaf Infants
and the role of Video Interaction Guidance (VIG)

• Jacqueline Bristow
• Educational Psychologist
• Brighton Hove City Council
• Jacqueline.bristow_at_brighton-hove.gov.uk

2
Theoretical background

• Background to VIG Simpson (2001)
  operationalises attachment and attunement
• Papouseks Intuitive Parenting (HM Papousek
  1977,92).
• Non-conscious InterventionsYou cannot just
  decide to behave this way
• VIG in relation to Intuitive Parenting
• Advice/telling how does not lead to change.
• A Process of Reflection on Intuitive Responses to
  infant promotes positive interactions.

3
Interactions and Mental Health with Deaf Infants

• Distortions and compensations when an infant is
  deaf (Meadow,Greenberg,Erting et al 1981,
  Spencer, Bodner-Johnson, Gutfreund 1992)
• Clinical implications of deafness in parent
  infant interactions (Koester,Papousek,
  Smith-Gray 2000)
• Maternal sensitivity and deaf infants language
  development (Pressman,Pipp-Siegel,Yoshinago-Itano,
  Deas 1999, Yoshinago-Itano 2003)

4
Case Study Method

• Participants
• 3 case studies of preverbal infants below 2yrs
  with hearing mothers.
• Measures - Changes
• Information given is based on
• Parent perception (by report)
• Communicative behaviours from initial to final
  video (with observation of contact behaviours).

5
Application of Contact Principles in this Research
6
Results Case A

• Observations Pre-intervention
• High intrusion, small moments of attunement to
  infant initiative ,lack of awareness of range of
  communicative behaviours infant used.
• By Feedback Session 3
• Longer moments of attunement to infant
• Mothers response shows changes in
• Her awareness of ways child communicates,
• Her feelings are more positive accepting of
  child,
• She identifies concrete communicative behaviours
  of infant.

7
Results Case B

• Observations Pre-intervention
• attunement, intrusion,over-direction .Infant
  rejection followed by repair.
• By Feedback Session 2
• More attunement, less intrusion,more child led.
• Mothers response shows changes in
• Greater awareness of infants initiatives
  responses. More confidence in M-D communication.
  Feels parenting skills affirmed.
  Feels VIG compared to prescriptive advice helps
  her feel strong.

8
Results Case C

• Observations Pre-intervention
• Tone of mother-infant dyad often negative affect.
• Low awareness of response to child initiatives.
• Few contingent interactions.
• Both mother infant dissatisfied with their
  interactions.
• By Feedback Session 2
• More space for infant to lead, more attention to
  infant and his play.

9
Results Case C
Mothers Response She feels her concerns are
answered She shows she now considers his wants
(inter-subjectivity) She saw the change to happy
from miserable, identifies herself following his
attention and his lead
10
Summary of Results Cases A B C

• Mothers perceived their concerns answered.
• Increase in awareness of infant contact
  behaviours
• Increased response to child initiatives,
• More moments of harmony in dyad.
• Less intrusion,over- direction ,infant
  rejection,negative affect.

11
Relating Results to the Literature

• Initial videos
• intrusion, over-direction (Spencer et al 1992,
  Meadow-Orlans et al1993)
• loss of access to intuitive responses (HM
  Papousek 1977,92)
• Final videos
• Changes in affective tone behavioural qualities
  in
• relationship
• These relate to infant mental health
  (Koester,Papousek, Smith Gray 2000)

12
What VIG Achieved

• Process
• Self modelling with seeing ,not telling ,
  increased self belief in parent-infant
  attunement.
• Benefit
• This enabled parents to connect to their infants
  signals promoted intuitive parental responses.
• Result
• Profound changes in a short time few sessions.

13
Setting VIG in Context

• Family partnership model (Davis et al 2002).
• Parent concerns come first.
• Family led.
• Family answers own question.
• VIG particularly helpful in many contexts for
  parents with a deaf infant
• Brighton Hove Project Summaries
  www.earlysupport.org.uk/pilot2/partner/who/
  previous/services/8/index.html

14
Where Next for VIG?

• Need For
• Awareness raising with other professionals.
  (Parents value this, other professionals can
  perceive this as intrusion).
• A larger study with more specific evaluation of
  outcome measures follow up of outcomes.