The intervention model for affective involvement and its effectiveness

Can one share emotions with someone who can’t hear and see well? The dissertation of Marga Martens addresses the effectiveness of a training she developed for professionals to foster affective involvement or the mutual sharing of emotions with people who are congenitally deafblind.

People with congenital deafblindness are unable to use the senses hearing and seeing from day one of their lives or at least before language has developed. Due to the lack of these two senses, it is hard for them to understand what is happening around them and to exchange thoughts and feelings with other people. That makes them vulnerable to negative experiences including negative emotions and tensions.

Three studies in everyday practice showed that it is possible to coach caregivers and teachers from various organizations to foster affective involvement in different situations. Through video analysis and video feedback they learned to recognize negative and positive emotions and to share these emotions in a positive way that is perceivable for a person with deafblindness. It was remarkable that, during the training, negative emotions of the persons with deafblindness decreased while positive emotions emerged. This was also the case for persons with deafblindness and an intellectual disability. This research project shows that coaching teachers and caregivers to foster affective involvement has positive effects on the well-being of the persons with deafblindness with whom they interact. It may be an effective method to prevent challenge behavior.