Design for self-reporting psychological health in children with intellectual disabilities

Paper in proceeding, 2015

In this paper, we describe the development and initial results of an interactive touch based questionnaire aiming to support self-reporting of the psychological health among children with intellectual disabilities (ID) aged 12-15. The questionnaire was developed in co-operation with pupils and teachers in special education and is tailored to assess psychological health, peer-relations, school- and family environment in youths with various disabilities. Preliminary results indicate that the application can be reliably completed by pupils without assistance from adults, independent of the youth's level of word comprehension and reading ability. The application allow for children with ID to self-report on psychological health, an essential first step in order to understand factors that contribute to variation in psychological health. This information can be the ground for designs that can change the everyday life for all children and youth with a chronic intellectual disability. The project is still ongoing, and the contribution of this paper is the lessons learned from developing a questionnaire that support self-reporting and assessment of psychological health in children with intellectual disabilities.