Background: Knowledge about the quality of assessment methods used in the support of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is scarce. This study aimed to provide an overview of the assessment methods used in practice and to examine whether these instruments were studied for their psychometric properties for people with…

Although a sizable minority of students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) are also diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is little research examining teachers' feelings of aptitude for working with these students, nor the instructional strategies used with this population. This study reports results from a researcher-designed…

Families with a child with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) have to manage the child's pervasive support needs. To ensure that families are able to manage these needs, they should be properly supported. However, knowledge about the specific support needs of these families is sparse and fragmented, nor is it known if and which…

Background: Since the life expectancy of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) is increasing, siblings may take over care/support roles from their parents. Method: To explore how parents and siblings of persons with PIMD view siblings' role regarding future care/support for their family member, we interviewed eight…

Postsecondary education students with intellectual and multiple disabilities are often supported by same-aged peer mentors. A single-subject multiple baseline design was used to examine the relationship between training with and without performance feedback and a peer mentor's fidelity of implementing a student's function-based intervention plan…

Engagement is important for learning. Because of their atypical expression, measuring engagement for students with multiple and severe disabilities (MSD) is challenging. Group activities often enhance engagement of children and gross motor activities include an expanded variety of behaviors by which engagement may be measured. The purpose of this…

Background: Quality of Life (QoL) may be a factor in physicians' decisions on treatment of persons with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD). We explored the perception of physicians on the QoL of persons with PIMD. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven experienced physicians treating persons with PIMD,…

A multicomponent training package (live training, video modeling, role playing, and feedback) was used to train teachers to conduct assessment and to instruct students with profound multiple disabilities. Phase 1 of the study involved training seven teachers to conduct assessment in three areas: (a) preference assessment (i.e., identification of…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012) is the third in the series of NLTS studies sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to examine youth with disabilities receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a long-standing federal law last updated in 2004. Under IDEA, youth with…

Growing enrollments of students with disabilities in postsecondary education along with recent key legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 and the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act, have generated considerable interest in research on accessibility of higher education for students with disabilities. This…

The paper reports on a study of faculty work attitudes which was conducted to determine ways in which the work environment at the Hope School for Blind, Multi-Handicapped Children in Springfield, Illinois could be modified in ways that would lead to improved faculty morale. The study focused on two areas that are generally accepted as critical to…

The paper notes the difficulties with most formal tests of language skills when applied to the assessment of communication and precommunication skills in individuals with severe and multiple handicaps. General principles for assessment and a flexible assessment device are summarized. The Functional Communication Assessment is offered as a basic…

The manual describes a procedure to assess to what extent a deaf-blind multiply handicapped student uses his residual hearing in the classroom. Six levels of auditory functioning (awareness/reflexive, attention/alerting, localization, auditory discrimination, recognition, and comprehension) are analyzed, and assessment activities are detailed for…

Ten multihandicapped high-school students in the Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools were trained using a curriculum of independent community social skills, focusing specifically on restaurant skills, travel skills, shopping skills, self-care skills, and skills for visiting a business or government agency. The students made weekly trips into the…

A training manual for teaching functional sign training to the severely multiply handicapped was developed using the Signing Exact English (SEE) system. The program, which was adapted from the Functional Speech and Language Training Program, is designed for persons who lack refined motor, speech, and language skills. Procedures are outlined to use…