Essential Viewing
Maximising Choice and Control, 2:52.
When seeking to adopt a person-centered approach, we maximize the choice and control that a client has over activities. Watch the following video from the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University. It provides tips for maximizing choice and control within the context of adult intellectual disability services:
Commentary: Maximising Choice and Control, 4:04. This La Trobe University video explores how supporters can offer meaningful choices to people with substantial communication and physical support needs. Notice how they attend to the person’s responses. As an RBT, use these principles while following the agreed support and teaching plan.
Guided Supervision Conversation
In this fictional exchange, Emma, an RBT, discusses choice and normalization with her supervisor, Alex.
Emma: Does normalization mean encouraging someone to choose what other adults usually choose?
Alex: It means access to ordinary opportunities, not requiring the same preferences. A person may prefer a quiet activity or a hobby others consider childish. Their harmless preferences deserve respect.
Emma: What if our planned group activity does not match what the person wants?
Alex: Offer choices they can understand, allow time to respond and pay attention to how they communicate acceptance or refusal. Share what you observe with me so we can consider changes to the plan together.
Emma: So I can suggest ways to support their goals, rather than expecting them to fit our routine?
Alex: Exactly. Follow the agreed plan within your training, and bring concerns or ideas to supervision. Person-centered support should reflect what matters to the person.
Optional Viewing
In this video from 1993, Bengt Nirje (one of the founders of the Normalization movement) discusses its origins. You may find it beneficial to use the subtitles (closed captions) function when watching this video. Please note, as this is an old video, some of the terminology used is outdated.
In this film from Open Future Learning, Beth Mount explains how Person-Centered work differs from System-Centered work.
Optional Reading
The following article from the Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry provides an overview of social role valorization.
In the following article Quannah Parker-McGowan and Joe Reichle discuss the relationship between ABA and the person centered approach.
Conversation Exercise
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Reflection Exercise
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