A comprehensive national portrait of employment and income status of adults with developmental disabilities was estimated through secondary analyses of the 1990/91 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Results indicate that the majority of adults with developmental disabilities had very limited economic resources, even when earnings from…

This article reviews basic literature on behavioral pharmacology and integrates these findings with existing applied research regarding psychotropic medication. Suggestions are provided for improving research practices, increasing the diversity of people in decision-making regarding medication use, and developing consumer-friendly strategies for…

This study evaluated an hierarchical intervention with four young children with significant developmental delays. Picture cues and correspondence training were provided at three levels of intrusiveness. Two children required only less intrusive levels of instruction while the other two required the entire intervention package to reach criterion.…

A great deal is known about the effects of positive reinforcement on response acquisition; by contrast, much less research has been conducted on contingencies applied to errors. We examined the effects of response repetition as an error-correction procedure on the sight-word reading performance of 11 adults with developmental disabilities. Study 1…

Children who experienced autism, mental retardation, and language disorders; and, children in a clinical control group were shown photographs of human female, orangutan, and canine (boxer) faces expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and a neutral expression. For each species of faces, children were asked to identify the happy, sad, angry,…

This project examined whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived requesting skills in 3 adults with disabilities. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using pictures; they were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and between dictated names and…

Functional communication training (FCT) is a widely used treatment for individuals with developmental disabilities who exhibit severe behavior problems. One inherent challenge of employing FCT as a treatment in the community is that reinforcement for appropriate communication cannot always be immediate or even possible in some circumstances. Of…

In this project we examined access to health care by individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas from low income populations and from minority backgrounds. Four criteria for determining access were employed: availability, accessibility, affordability, and appropriateness of care. Factors that pose barriers and that facilitate access are…

There is an impending crisis in long-term care for people with developmental disabilities. The demand for care will likely outpace the supply for decades to come. Factors, such as limited existing long-term care resources, increased life expectancy for people with developmental disabilities, changing family demographics, legal actions, and…

Waiting lists for people with intellectual disabilities who seek services from Mental Retardation (MR) or Development Disability (DD) systems are a very visible problem across the country and have forced people with disabilities, families and caregivers to respond by pressing their states into action. People living at home with their parents or…

This article describes a university-based inclusion program for college-age students with developmental disabilities. An overview of the program considers program objectives, participants (outreach students and university students enrolled in an occupation therapy program), and scope. Description of the program implementation is followed by…

In white matter disorders such as leukodystrophies (LD), periventricular leucomalacia (PVL), or multiple sclerosis (MS), the hypomyelination or the remyelination failure by oligodendrocyte progenitor cells involves errors in the sequence of events that normally occur during development when progenitors proliferate, migrate through the white…

Conceptual and pragmatic issues relevant to the study of persons with autism are addressed within the context of comparison groups and matching strategies. We argue that no choice of comparison group or matching strategy is perfect, but rather needs to be determined by specific research objectives and theoretical questions. Thus, strategies can…

Assessment results indicated that pica exhibited by two boys with developmental disabilities was not associated with environmental contingencies. Consistent with previous research, an oral stimulation function was hypothesized. A related intervention that taught participants to exchange inedible items for edibles was developed. Findings showed…

Background: Individuals with Angelman syndrome (AS) seem to have a strong preference for water-related items. Until present, preference assessment in AS has not been reported. Methods: An adapted Dutch version of the Choice Assessment Scale (CAS) was administered by parents and other caregivers to 105 individuals with AS. The CAS was adapted by…