Background: It has been established that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties understanding spoken language. Understanding reflexive and clitic pronouns is vital to establishing reference-based inference, but it is as yet unclear whether such constructions pose specific difficulties for those with ASD. Pronoun…

Washington State University, Responsibility Opportunity Advocacy and Respect (WSU ROAR) is an inclusive 2-year residential postsecondary education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. WSU ROAR is a recognized comprehensive transition program located in rural eastern Washington. Within the program, there are four…

Gender variance (GV) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) frequently co-occur in clinical populations. We investigated GV in association with ASD characteristics in nonclinical children and in children with developmental/mental health diagnoses. In 6-12-year-olds (N = 2445; 51% birth-assigned boys), the Gender Identity Questionnaire for Children…

Feeding problems are known to be an important clinical issue for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the majority of studies on this topic have been carried out on children preschool age and older. It is important to understand whether these difficulties begin prior to age 3 years, as well as what parameters are important to study…

Background: Providing medical and dental care for adults with developmental disabilities requires specialised care that includes caregiver's perceptions of processes of care as integral to informing care delivery. Method: We examined the reach and efficacy of a medical-dental clinic serving adults with developmental disabilities as part of a…

While significant evidence indicates that making complex choices and decisions contributes to self-determination, the authors found no studies to date in which the phenomenon of engaging students with disabilities in choosing their high school courses was examined as a dependent variable. This phenomenological study explored how course-selection…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have higher rates of co-occurring diagnoses and use of psychotropic medication prescriptions than people with other developmental disabilities. Few studies have examined these trends in samples of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) with and without ASD. Using a random…

Purpose: Play is a critical aspect of children's development, and researchers have long argued that symbolic deficits in play may be diagnostic of developmental disabilities. This study examined whether deficits in play emerge as a function of developmental disabilities and whether our perceptions of play are colored by differences in language and…

Video-based instruction (VBI) has a substantial amount of research supporting its use with individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities. However, it has typically been implemented as a treatment package containing multiple interventions. Additionally, there are procedural variations of VBI. Thus, it is difficult…

When establishing eligibility for developmental disability (DD) services, definitions of specific diagnostic conditions, such as autism, impact policy. Under the Medicaid home and community-based waiver program, states have discretion in determining specific program or service eligibility criteria, the nature of supports to be provided, and the…

Feeding disorders exhibited by children with developmental disabilities, which include limiting food intake or refusing to consume solid foods, often result in poor health consequences. Interventions for feeding disorders vary in terms of their acceptability to children with disabilities and their families. One specific procedure, the…

The purpose of this review was to examine the body of research on teaching mathematics to students with moderate and severe developmental disability that has been published since 2005, reflecting changes in both the academic expectations for this population and research and design standards in the evidence-based practice (EBP) era. We examined…

Challenging behavior exhibited by young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities is known to negatively affect their optimal development and families' quality of life. Although some support exists for English-speaking parents of children with autism who live in high-resource countries, it is scarce for others. Such disparity may also be…

Background: Previous research suggests parents' level of satisfaction with their child's school experience is highly variable. The present author explored school satisfaction in a Canadian sample of parents of children with severe and often complex developmental disabilities. Method: Parents of 185 children completed questionnaires regarding their…

Background: Although parental stress is higher for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs), it is unclear how this stress compares to more common NDs. The current study compared stress in parents of children with Williams syndrome (WS), Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The impact of individual and contextual factors…