Reliability of assessing the sensory perception of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: a case study

Background This study describes preliminary stages of developing a checklist to enable practitioners to determine the behavioural responses of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities to sensory stimuli. Reliability of currently used checklists is low, with a focus on the child's sensory integration instead of perception. Methods The inter- rater reliability of a checklist was determined, and adjustments were made to improve reliability. Results Strikingly, the reliability decreased for all components after adjustment. The effect of a smaller item pool was ruled out. The effect of familiarity of teachers as raters was examined. Conclusions Results show that teachers who know a child well could interpret that child's behaviour more accurately than persons who were unfamiliar with the child. However, reliability of the checklist remains a problem.