Emotional and behavioural problems in children with visual impairment, intellectual and multiple disabilities.

The team compared kids who have both intellectual disability and visual impairment with three other groups. They looked at kids with ID only, kids with VI only, and typically developing peers.

They used parent and teacher rating scales to count emotional and behavioral problems. The study ran in regular and special schools.

Children with both ID and VI showed the highest problem scores. Attention problems and body complaints stood out most.

Single-impairment groups scored better, but still above typical peers. The gap was large enough to matter for daily programming.

Jaffe et al. (2002) saw the same dual-impairment risk earlier in a small case series. Their 18 clients improved after tailored plans, giving hope that the target's bleak numbers can move.

Žic Ralić et al. (2025) swaps visual loss for ASD and finds the same rule: two diagnoses worsen outcomes. Kids with ID+ASD scored lowest on social-emotional skills, matching the target's additive pattern.

Fusar-Poli et al. (2017) looks like a contradiction at first. They found kids with developmental coordination disorder also had high SDQ scores. The twist: DCD adds motor problems, not sensory, showing that any second neurodevelopmental hit raises risk.

When you see a learner with both ID and visual impairment, plan for extra attention and somatic issues from day one. Screen early, write goals for self-regulation and medical monitoring, and push for joint vision-ID services. The data say these kids are easy to miss in single-disability caseloads.