"Jullie bekijken het maar!” Sociale, cognitieve en contextfactoren in de communicatie tussen jongeren met een licht verstandelijke beperking en hun jeugdzorgwerkers in een orthopedagogisch behandelcentrum

Abstract

This thesis investigated whether social, cognitive, and contextual factors influence communication between young people with mild intellectual disability and behavioral problems (MID/BP youth), and their youth care workers in an orthopedagogical treatment centre. The results presented in this dissertation demonstrate that, amongst MID/BP youth, many incidents of aggression result from negative treatment by their youth care workers. Aggression is a characteristic of MID/BP youth, culminating from other traits such as earlier and easier display of emotions (in comparison with average gifted young people), weaker executive functions, and problems in the social information processes. Youth care workers play an important role in channeling this aggression. To facilitate more effective communication with MID/BP youth, training for youth care workers, referred to as ‘The Dialogue’, was developed. Although the training has resulted in more subjectively perceived competence amongst the youth care workers in their interaction with MID/BP youth, the results to date do not indicate any reduction of incidents of aggression. This may be due to youth care workers experiencing stress on the work floor due to, amongst other things, organizational/non-pedagogical factors, in addition to methodological issues, which in turn possibly contribute to their negative interaction with MID/BP youth. The findings of this thesis also underline the importance of more generous financing of, and lessening the administrative burden on, youth care workers, to enable them to interact more effectively with MID/BP youth under ‘The Dialogue’. The conclusion is also a flag to management and treatment managers of the orthopedagogical treatment centre to constantly look for solutions that deal with miscommunication and stress, to replace the ‘screw you’ attitude with ‘looking out for you’