IT-MAIS
Content
The IT-MAIS, Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) (Zimmerman-Phillips, Robbins & Osberger, 2000) is a modification of the MAIS designed to address the behaviour of infants and toddlers. We provide the scales in English and French.
Aim
This Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) (Robbins, Renshaw & Berry, 1991) is a parent report scale that assesses three major aspects of profoundly hearing-impaired children's use of sound in everyday situations: device bonding, alerting to sound and deriving meaning from auditory stimuli in everyday situations. The assessment is based upon information provided by the child’s parent in response to 10 probes.Structure
The MAIS consists of 10 questions or "probes" about which information is obtained during a structured interview with the child's parent or guardian. Probes 1 and 2 assess device bonding, probes 3, 4, 5 and 6 assess spontaneous alerting to sound, and probes 7, 8, 9 and 10 assess the child's ability to derive meaning from auditory stimuli. A structured interview technique rather than direct questioning is used to avoid cueing the informant to the desired answer and to eliminate "yes-no" responses. Parents are asked to describe their child's behaviour in specified situations. The response to each of the 10 probes is scored on a scale from 0 to 4, based on the frequency of occurrence of the target behaviour (i.e. 0 = never, 1 = rarely, 2 = occasionally, 3 = frequently and 4 = always), resulting in a total of 40 points possible on the measure. Detailed criteria for scoring responses are available to facilitate the objectivity of the procedure.Target Group
- Professionals working with young children, together with the parents.
