Challenging behaviour in an adult male with congenital deaf-blindness: analysis and intervention

People with severe congenital disabilities have been assessed on negatives, on what they do not have. Skill training and education of these missing abilities have been the major focus for the habilitation since emergence of the normalization ideology in the 1960s. Developmental theories and movements like quality of life and positive psychology have changed focus from training and education to well-being and other internal states in people with disabilities. This article describes how challenging behaviour vanished in a deaf-blind man when developmental theory was applied as the framework for his habilitation. Emotional processing and initiatives increased and the man became easier to understand for the staff. The special case of a deaf-blind man illustrates how simple a focus on internal states may slip and be exchanged for intervention dominated by demands and training. The article discusses whether the framework employed in the present intervention should be present in all kind of habilitation.