A Tailored Approach to Supporting Parent-Child Attachment in Families with Children with Severe Disabilities: Matching Interventions to Needs

ABSTRACT

Parents of children with severe disabilities have differing attachment-related support needs. An online vignette study with 25 experts, working in academia and/or clinical practice, was conducted to reflect upon the task of matching intervention components to families, based on their attachment strengths and needs. In two online rounds, the experts first completed an inventory of intervention (n = 25) components and second, they prioritised three components for particular families (n = 22). In addition, they reflected upon their argumentations for selecting these intervention components on different levels, either closely or more remotely connected to the children with disabilities themselves. The most common intervention choice across experts was to converse with parents to increase their understanding in the child’s behaviours and communication. Experts justified their choices at various levels (child, parent, family unit, broader environment and professional). In that way, the current study provided an overview of the large number of elements that professionals and policy need to take into account when providing tailored intervention trajectories to these families. Systematically reflecting upon parents’ attachment-related perceptions, strengths and (support) needs can furthermore stimulate professionals to prioritise their actions. It should, however, be embedded in a broader (diagnostic and contextual) intake procedure.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• needs-driven intervention
• parenting interventions
• personalised intervention
• severe or profound intellectual disabilities
• young children

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all experts who allocated the time to participate in the current research and to Evy Meys to ensure trustworthiness in data analysis.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This implies that the intervention components were not implemented in the families on which the vignettes were based.

2. Note that the intervention programs were only mentioned as exemplary protocols in which certain components were applied; it is beyond the scope of the study to provide an exhaustive list of intervention programs based on systematic review.

3. Intervention components were defined as specific combinations of an intervention goal/target and an intervention method/practice element.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders [1174917N].