Developmental support agencies support many adults with intellectual disabilities in the community. Unfortunately, these adults often exhibit high rates of challenging behaviour, which present significant pressures on these service providers. Agencies need to develop effective means of increasing their capacity to provide quality support. Previous…

Background: Direct Support Professionals (DSP) work closely with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and can play an important role in helping these individuals get treatment when they are also experiencing mental health concerns (MHC). Methods: We employed a systematic review search techniques to identify 15…

Behaviour support plans (BSPs), if accurately implemented, have been found to increase skills and decrease challenging behaviour of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Training is essential for staff to acquire the skills necessary for accurate implementation. The aim of this systematic literature review was to evaluate…

Frontline staff are a valuable asset within an intellectual and developmental disability service. Their work dictates the overall standard of care delivered by the organization. However, there is evidence that the research relating to effective practice is having little impact on the competencies displayed by staff in the real-world setting.…

Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) depend on caregivers to meet physical, emotional, and social needs. This makes relationships with caregivers particularly important to quality of life. Without intervention, social interactions may be limited and ineffective, affecting relationships with caregivers and thus quality of life for…

This paper describes some of the procedures most frequently used in research on staff training and reviews the research in relation to outcomes for clients with developmental disabilities as a function of staff training, maintenance of staff skills, and transfer of staff skills across settings, clients, and programs. Issues in behavioral…

The Child and Family Neighborhood Program, located in a suburb of Detroit, is an early childhood intervention project aimed at strengthening informal and formal family suoport systems and increasing parents' knowledge of child development. The program works with clusters of 10 parents and their young children (0-3 years) twice weekly in a…

Parents, professionals, paraprofessionals, and service providers must increase their understanding of and sensitivity to the effects of their own interactions and the interactions of others on developmentally disabled persons. Training for these groups should cover such areas as transition into adulthood and integration of education, employment,…

This article provides a critical review of empirical investigations on the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and assistive technology with individuals with autism or pervasive developmental disorder. The review is presented by six topic areas: assessment, staff/family training, supports for augmented input, supports for…