Making a difference? A comparison between multi-sensory and regular storytelling for persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.
Add touch, smell, or sound props during story time and clients with profound ID will look at the book more.
01Research in Context
What this study did
van Timmeren et al. (2016) compared two ways of reading to adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. One group heard regular stories. The other group got multi-sensory storytelling. That means they felt, smelled, or tasted items that matched the story.
The team filmed each session. Later they counted how long each person looked at the book or at the reader.
What they found
People who got multi-sensory stories looked at the book much more. The difference was large enough to be significant.
Attention to the reader stayed the same in both groups. The props pulled eyes to the page, not to the staff member.
How this fits with other research
Hostyn et al. (2011) watched the same population and saw almost no joint attention. Staff rarely used touch. The new study shows that when you add touch on purpose, attention jumps.
Latham et al. (2014) and Winburn et al. (2014) also found that extra sights or hands-on cues help people with autism or Down syndrome learn words or lists. The pattern is the same: two senses beat one.
Wang et al. (2022) looked at working memory, not story time, but they also saw that low-IQ kids only benefit from movement when the task is simple. That warns us to keep MSST stories short and the props easy to feel.
Why it matters
If you run a day program or classroom for clients with profound ID, swap plain story time for MSST. Bring real coffee beans, a soft scarf, or a tiny bell. Let clients touch, smell, or shake the item while you read the matching page. You should see more eyes on the book right away. No extra staff or gear needed—just everyday objects and twenty minutes.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one short picture book. Collect three real items that match key pages. Hand the item to each client as you read the matching line.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Multi-sensory storytelling (MSST) was developed to include persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in storytelling culture. In order to increase the listeners' attention, MSST stories are individualised and use multiple sensory stimuli to support the verbal text. In order to determine the value of MSST, this study compared listeners' attention under two conditions: (1) being read MSST books and (2) being read regular stories. METHOD: A non-randomised control study was executed in which the intervention group read MSST books (n = 45) and a comparison group (n = 31) read regular books. Books were read 10 times during a 5-week period. The 1st, 5th and 10th storytelling sessions were recorded on video in both groups, and the percentage of attention directed to the book and/or stimuli and to the storyteller was scored by a trained and independent rater. Two repeated measure analyses (with the storytelling condition as a between-subject factor and the three measurements as factor) were performed to determine the difference between the groups in terms of attention directed to the book/stimuli (first analysis) and storyteller (second analysis). A further analysis established whether the level of attention changed between the reading sessions and whether there was an interaction effect between the repetition of the book and the storytelling condition. RESULTS: The attention directed to the book and/or the stimuli was significantly higher in the MSST group than in the comparison group. No significant difference between the two groups was found in the attention directed to the storyteller. For MSST stories, most attention was observed during the fifth reading session, while for regular stories, the fifth session gained least attentiveness from the listener. CONCLUSION: The persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities paid more attention to the book and/or stimuli in the MSST condition compared with the regular story telling group. Being more attentive towards the book and stimuli might give persons with PIMD the opportunity to apprehend the story and to be included in storytelling culture.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2016 · doi:10.1111/jir.12260