It is imperative that we devote resources and research effort to find out what is going on in families where there is a member with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) over the course of the COVID 19 pandemic and how adaptations can be made to provide the most effective help. This article discusses the need for more research to be…

Learning about a child's condition and raising a child with a developmental disability can be challenging and emotionally overwhelming, but systematic support programs for parents are practically nonexistent. We find that providing support for parents should be an important public health priority which should be made available through educational,…

The family-centered medical home describes an approach to providing comprehensive primary care. Research advances in developmental neuroscience, genetics, and epigenetics offer a framework for understanding the dynamic process of brain development. It is this process that sets the life-course trajectory for an individual; in turn, a child's…

The paper reports epidemiological and phenomenological investigations of aberrant eating among 347 pre-adolescent children in court-ordered foster and kinship care, in New South Wales, Australia. A quarter of children displayed clinically significant aberrant eating problems, with no evidence of gender or age effects. Two distinct patterns were…

The birth of a child with Down syndrome has the "potential" to have many effects upon the family. Conversely, the way in which individual family members and the family as a whole respond to this situation has the capacity to have a profound impact on the child's development. This "bidirectional" process, in which the child's behavior affects the…

This paper briefly reviews the two assumptions involved in the use of a stress management approach with parents of the developmentally disabled, i.e., that many parents are subject to high stress and that stress interferes with the person's functioning. A discussion of possible stressors and possible effects of stress are outlined, e.g., health…

Retrospective accounts of the nature of adolescence as experienced by mildly handicapped individuals were gathered through indepth conversations and interviews over an 18 month period with 48 mildly retarded adults (ages 22 to 60) living independently in the community. Structured life history interviews were also conducted with parents or other…

Significant mental health problems can and do occur in young children. In some cases, these problems can have serious consequences for early learning, social competence, and lifelong health. Furthermore, the foundations of many mental health problems that endure through adulthood are established early in life through the interaction of genetic…

The abuse of people with developmental disabilities has a long and horrific history, which extends from prehistoric to current times. Only in the past 20 or 30 years has society recognized that this abuse is a serious social problem and, with this recognition, research has been carried out on the topic. The limited research that has been done…

This speech reports on data collected by the Early Intervention Collaborative Study (EICS), which is a longitudinal study following the development of 190 young children with disabilities (and their families) who entered 29 publicly funded early intervention programs in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the period from 1985 to 1987. The…