This mixed methods survey study aims to investigate school staff's perspectives on using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with students with the most severe disabilities in Swedish school settings. The study employed a convergent mixed methods design, where both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analysed in…

This qualitative study investigates teachers' perspectives on anxiety among autistic learners with intellectual disabilities (ID) in special school settings. Research in this area remains limited, with existing studies often overlooking the distinct ways anxiety manifests and interacts with ID in this population. Semi-structured interviews with…

Of individuals with an intellectual disability, 1% are recognized as having a profound intellectual disability and commonly present at a mental age of roughly three years or below. While inclusive music education models and therapeutic models have received considerable attention, there is a scarcity of literature on music education for students…

Advances in medical care have seen children and young people with rare and life shortening conditions, living longer. This is the case for those living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, whose life expectancy has doubled over the last few decades from around 20 to 40 years. Improving care has tended to focus on the physical aspects of the…

Background: Interactive engagement, specifically attention and initiation, are considered important skills for facilitating development and learning in students with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. Prior research has suggested that music therapy and multisensory storytelling are two promising interventions for supporting…

Academic accommodations for students experiencing disabilities are increasingly available at postsecondary institutions. More studies of the efficacy of accommodations for student success are warranted, however. Given the increased gender gap in university participation, more focus on the unique impact of gender is also needed. Using a sample of…

Children with severe multiple disabilities face numerous possibilities for enjoying music and participating in performance activities; however, the research practice for realizing these possibilities involves various difficulties. To understand the disabilities of children and their engagement with music, awareness of one's perception of…

The feasibility of a pedagogical approach--MultiSensory Music Drama (MSMD)--was investigated in collaboration with a teacher and a student with severe/profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (S/PIMD). Educational research for this group of learners is scarce, but research has suggested the potential of integrating music and multisensory…

The purpose of this article is to describe procedures for a team approach to implementing a tangible symbol communication system (TSCS) to support communication skill development of young children with multiple/severe disabilities (MSD). The authors suggest that implementation of a TSCS is a process that includes (a) assessment of child…

In accordance with Greek law, students with special educational needs and/or disabilities attend mainstream schools, unless an Interdisciplinary Assessment, Counselling and Support Centre recommends otherwise based on the type or severity of the disability. This paper presents quantitative data from the Greek Statistical Authority regarding the…

This study reconsidered educational materials by analyzing educators' opinions regarding handmade manipulative materials (HMMs) for children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in Japan. Instead of concurring with the view that educational materials are static and inert products, the author adopted an agential realist perspective…

Ohio's public schools provide special education services to children with disabilities as early as preschool. Every year, as required by Ohio Revised Code 3323.20, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce reports the number of preschool children who received state-funded special education services during the previous year, disaggregated…

With this quantitative study we aimed to develop a scale that could be used to assess the attitudes of special education needs (SEN) teachers towards students with multiple disabilities. The scale was tested in 2 stages using 2 different samples. Firstly, the scale was administered to a convenience sample of 215 teachers. For the first study, the…

The increasing complexity of children with SLD and PMLD can make day-to-day teaching challenging and emotionally taxing. Regular opportunities for teachers to reflect upon practice can help teachers make sense of what happens in the classroom and see the relationship between their personal theories, values and beliefs, and their thinking,…

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) were particularly vulnerable to the school closures that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to obtain a baseline understanding of the instructional experiences of students with IDD before March of 2020 to assess the nature and degree of the pandemic's impact. We recruited…