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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Pediatric Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1439605
This article is part of the Research Topic Neurobiological, Psychological, and Environmental Influences on Parenting and Child Development: An Inclusive and Interdisciplinary Perspective View all 6 articles

Bodily-tactile early intervention: A pilot study of the role of maternal touch and emotional availability in interactions between three children with visual impairment and additional disabilities and their mothers

Provisionally accepted
Sini Peltokorpi Sini Peltokorpi 1,2*Saara Salo Saara Salo 3Anne Nafstad Anne Nafstad 4Paul Hart Paul Hart 5Zeynep Biringen Zeynep Biringen 6Minna Laakso Minna Laakso 3
  • 1 University of Turku, Turku, Finland
  • 2 New Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 3 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
  • 4 National Unit for Combined Visual and Hearing Loss and Deafblindness, Statped, Oslo, Norway
  • 5 Independent researcher, Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • 6 Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Children with visual impairment and additional disabilities (VIAD) have difficulty accessing the visual information related to their parents’ facial expressions and gestures. Similarly, it may be hard for parents to detect their children’s subtle expressions. These challenges in accessibility may compromise emotional availability (EA) in parent-child interactions. The systematic use of the bodily-tactile modality for expressive and receptive communicative functions may function as a strategy to compensate for a child’s lack of vision. This multiple-case study explored the effects of a bodily-tactile early intervention for three mothers and their one-year-old children with VIAD. Methods: Video data from baseline, intervention, and follow-up sessions were analyzed using a bodily-tactile coding procedure and EA Scales. Results: During the intervention, all mothers began to use a more bodily-tactile modality in early play routines and in different communicative functions. They increased their use of anticipatory cues, noticing responses, and tactile signs. Moreover, the children were more emotionally available to their mothers during the intervention and follow-up compared to the baseline. Conclusions: The results indicated that, during a short intervention, mothers could adopt a systematic use of the bodily-tactile modality in interactions with their children with VIAD. The results also suggest that, when mothers increased flexibility in communication channels, it was positively linked to their children’s EA.

    Keywords: visual impairment, additional disabilities, Early Intervention, Emotional Availability, bodily-tactile modality, Touch, early play routines, accessibility

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Peltokorpi, Salo, Nafstad, Hart, Biringen and Laakso. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sini Peltokorpi, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.