Learning by Children With Profound and Multiple Disabilities: Review of Research

Abstract

The present article reviews publications on the learning of children with profound and multiple disabilities. Because of the severity and overlap of these children's disabilities, it is not easy to set up suitable goals and curricula for them, and teachers at schools for children with special needs have a diffıcult time. However, regardless of the severity of these children's disabilities, it is important that they learn actively by themselves. The present review classifıed articles in the published literature on the learning of children with profound and multiple disabilities into the following categories: (a) the relation between children with profound and multiple disabilities and the teachers who try to communicate with them (kakawarite), (b) cognitive development and applied behavior analysis, (c) mass teaching and group learning, (d) joint attention, and (e) ecological psychology. Previous research has strongly emphasized the importance of teachers' actions and the setting for learning. The present review discusses the learning of children with profound and multiple disabilities from the perspective of cultural psychology.