Affect attunement has been described in the literature as reflecting back emotions and feelings projected by a person in order to create a connection.
Here Paul Barnard looks at a paper exploring ways in which support workers might be using this approach in their work with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
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Intensive interaction is an accepted approach to working with people with learning disabilities and/or autism, but how much do we know about its effectiveness?
Here, Katherine Runswick Cole looks at a review of literature that addresses this question.
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Being engaged in our community at a level, with which we feel comfortable, could be a measure of the quality of our lives. But how do workers who support people with learning disabilities help them in ways, which can achieve this? What helps and what gets in the way?
Here, in her debut blog, Paula Hopes looks at a naturalistic observation study that looked at this issue in more detail.
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Some people with learning disabilities may find it difficult to learn social rules and behaviours, which can impact on involvement and engagement in their commnunities.
In her debut blog, Mandy Johnson looks at a project in the Republic of Ireland which set out to help people consider the desirability of a range of social behaviours and the complexities of social context.
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A positive self concept has been associated with psychological well-being, peer acceptance and self-confidence, but how do people with mild learning disabilities view themselves?
In this, his debut blog, Alex Leeder looks at a qualitative study that set out to provide us with a deeper understanding of how adults with learning disabilities think about themselves and how practitioners could help them to think about this more positively.
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Despite an increasing body of research evidence that demonstrates the ongoing health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities, there have been few changes in policy and practice.
In her debut blog, Rosalyn Hithersay presents a paper that describes a series of workshops that took place in 2013 with the aim of addressing this shift from evidence to action.
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Adults with Williams syndrome are said to have a highly social personality, but can find it difficult to form and maintain relationships.
Here we report on a recent observational study which compared parent and self-report measures of social behaviour to observations of real life social situations.
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In her first blog for the Social Care Elf, Caroline Struthers looks at research on cognitive impairment and shared decision making for people with dementia and offers useful tips on understanding research reviews. She also shares some of her own personal experience of the research topic and reminds us about reliable evidence having real-life applications.
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In the week following the publication of the Bubb report after the appalling scenes uncovered at Winterbourne View, a team in Ireland uncover similar abuses in a care centre in Mayo. Here we look at what they found and the initial response of the authorities there.
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When choking risk is identified for people with learning disabilities and fluid consistency modification is prescribed, it is critical that staff get the consistency right. Here we report on an efficacy study which looked at whether the use of Thickness Indicator Model tubes as a visual aid in training improved the efficacy of staff training.
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