Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects the functioning of the brain and consequently other areas of development in an unstable and irregular way. There are many therapeutic approaches to autism and one of them is music therapy. Music therapy is a purely therapeutic treatment (Anagnostopoulou & Manti, 2009). It does not seek…

New Zealand has few estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder and no national registry. The use of administrative data sources is expanding and could be useful in autism spectrum disorder research. However, the extent to which autism spectrum disorder can be captured in these data sources is unknown. In this study, we utilised three…

Classroom behavior is a source of anxiety, stress, and distraction for many teachers and is a key reason teachers give for leaving the profession. This often raises questions regarding the extent to which teacher preparation programs and initial teaching placements prepare pre-service teachers for working with students who display challenging…

Although the early behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder have been well characterized, many behaviors are also commonly observed in young children with other developmental delays and even in those with typical development. Therefore, consideration must be given to whether a child demonstrates sufficient autism spectrum disorder…

Background: Parenting of children with Developmental Disabilities is considered to be a challenging task. This group of parents are at risk for lower levels of being satisfied with caregiving to their child compared to parents of typically developing children. Methods: Participants were recruited from different services in four provinces across…

Objectives: Behavioral and emotional problems exhibited by children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have been identified as significant stressors for family members in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. However, there is variability in the extent to which family members are affected by behavioral and emotional…

Several neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with preference for routine and challenging behavior following changes to routines. We examine individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome, who show elevated levels of this behavior, to better understand how previous experience of a routine can affect challenging behavior elicited by disruption to…

Mental health therapists use strategies such as rupture and repair, unconditional positive regard, and managing countertransference to help their clients achieve therapeutic goals. These tools work across disciplines. Teaching parents to use therapeutic techniques increases opportunities to enhance their child's development and builds compliance…

Background: Children with developmental disabilities who exhibit challenging behaviour are potentially subject to the use of coercive interventions. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of the use of coercive measures by authorities, according to parents' reports. Materials and Methods: A postal survey was distributed, as a total…

Background: Parents often play a lifelong role in supporting their sons and daughters with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). There is a need to better understand parent resources, particularly when the individual with IDD has behaviour problems, as the latter has consistently been linked to parental burden. Methods: The current…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently exhibit generalization errors, but many instructional programs fail to address this deficit. Generalization errors encompass when the learner should extend the use of a newly taught behavior to other contexts but does not (under-generalization), as well as when he or she should not use the…

Background: There is now substantial literature demonstrating that a disproportionate number of young people who come into contact with youth justice services evidence unidentified language difficulties. These young people, therefore, have received little or no professional input in this area. Conversely, there is a dearth of research pertaining…

Background: The aim of the current study was to identify functional predictors of perceived impact of childhood disability among families of children with neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities. We first examined the relationship between sub-domains of adaptive and problematic behaviour and perceived family impact. Second, we examined…

Parent engagement in behavioral interventions is critical for treatments to succeed. Parental decision-making regarding treatments can be impacted by systematic biases, such as the tendency to discount the value of delayed benefits, or "delay discounting". This study examined the impact of delay discounting on parents' perceptions of…

Background: Research examining the quality of life (QoL) of children with severe developmental disabilities (SDD) is limited. The present study examines parent perceptions of child QoL in children with SDD compared with typically developing (TD) children and then examines predictors of QoL for the SDD group. Method: Parents of 246 children with…