Emotional Development and Intellectual Disability

Oili Sauna-aho, PhD, Clinical Neuropsychologist, Director of Expert and Developmental Services KTO, Support and Expert Center for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, Paimio, Finland15th November 2021

The book “Emotional Development and Intellectual Disability - A guide to understanding emotional development and its implications” gives a thorough description about what emotional development means and why it is important to us working in the field of intellectual disabilities (ID). The book gives a new and an inspiring perspective to understand and support persons with ID.

Emotional development is not a new concept, but it has not been a central interest within the practice of ID. The professionals used to assess intellectual and adaptive abilities of the person with ID, but when the person has challenging behaviour or challenging situations in daily life this is often not enough. Looking at the emotional development gives a new and positive perspective to understanding challenging behaviour and tools to improve the life of the person with ID and their caregivers.

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• The seven stages of emotional development and two different scales to assess it (SEO-R2 and SED-S) are introduced in the book. Dutch child psychiatrist Anton Dosen has had a significant role to bring this concept into practice. The theoretical framework is based on well-known theories of a child’s psychological development by Freud, Mahler, Erikson, Bowler and Stern. In the book there are also many interesting and important themes e.g. autism spectrum, sexual development, the role of attachment, forensic psychiatry and their connections to emotional development and ID. The writers of the book are all well-known scientists and professionals in the field, and the articles are easy to read even though they contain a lot of scientific information.

• The book describes practical methods to assess emotional development and how to coach the network of the person with ID. The assessment itself can already be an intervention when caregivers are interviewed on different aspects of the person’s behaviour in daily life. During the interview caregivers may have new insights why some issues are so important to the person and why he or she is so challenging. If the emotional development is far beyond the intellectual development and chronological age, the demands to the person’s ability to control emotions and behaviour can be too high. Meeting emotional needs can be the key to this.
• Emotional development seems to be the missing piece in understanding and supporting the person with ID. Assessing emotional development can also help to make better psychiatric diagnosis and give better tools to support the persons and their caregivers in daily life. The Book is the first of this theme in English and it should be “the must” for everyone working in the field of ID!

Jac de Bruijn is an independent consultant for healthcare and society with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare, especially for people with a disability. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of Stichting Prisma and was previously head of treatment and mental health psychologist. He worked as a lecturer at the Erasmus Medical Center, to which he is now affiliated as a guest lecturer. He published several books together with others and is specialised in methods and interventions for people with intellectual disability. He is passionate about inclusion, inclusive research and ethics of care.

Jolanda Vonk studied educational science at the Free University of Amsterdam (VU, cum laude). She works as a senior behavioral scientist at ORO/Lore in the Netherlands. She has worked in the field of people with ID for more than 30 years as a healthcare psychologist, remedial educationalist, sexologist, supervisor and coach. Jolanda also works as a consultant for the Centre of Expertise and Consultation (CCE), a national organization in the Netherlands that is deployed on demand for complex problems of people with intellectual disability or mental health problems. She provides training to post-graduate education and to organizations in company about emotional development, sexology and social interaction in the professional relationship since ten years. Jolanda has written several publications on emotional development. She is also a member of the Network of Europeans on Emotional Development (NEED, 2015).

Ad van den Broek worked as a healthcare psychologist in the care of people with intellectual disabilities. Today he works at FORTIOR, which he founded in 2006 and for which he is now responsible together with Catja van den Broek. His interest is mainly in the emotional and personality development in the context of the developmental dynamic model and in methods in the field of relationship, contact. communication and support.

Brian Twint studied social work at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and after a period in youth services has been working for years as a personal supervisor and project leader in the field of intellectual disability. Twint is the original designer of the ‘Affectief Bewuste Benadering’ (Affective Conscious Approach), initiator of the Expertise Centre Intellectual Disability in the Netherlands, and author of several books about and for people with intellectual disabilities.

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