Many children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities suffer from the consequences of chronic drooling. Behavioral treatment for drooling should be considered before other, more intrusive treatments such as medication and surgery are implemented. However, empirical studies on behavioral procedures are scarce. This article reviews 19…

The First Year Inventory (FYI) is a parent questionnaire designed to assess behaviors in 12-month-olds that suggest risk for an eventual diagnosis of autism. We examined the construct validity of the FYI by comparing retrospective responses of parents of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD; n = 38), other developmental…

In a review of current research and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, this paper focuses on two specific issues: (a) how students with developmental disabilities show adequate yearly progress, including a description of the assessments in which this population may participate, and (b) the policy issues surrounding NCLB including…

Prenatal exposure to alcohol is a leading preventable cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities. Individuals exposed to alcohol during fetal development can have physical, mental, behavioral, and learning disabilities, with lifelong implications. These conditions are known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Health care…

Prevalence estimates often use U.S. Census Bureau estimates of the population as denominator data. Postcensal estimates are population estimates produced following a decennial census. Intercensal estimates are surrounded by 2 census years and supersede postcensal estimates. In this report we describe prevalence estimates in Atlanta for mental…

It has been suggested that the high levels of comorbidity between attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) may be attributed to a common underlying neurocognitive mechanism. This study assessed whether children with DCD and ADHD share deficits on tasks measuring working memory, set-shifting, and…

Staff at a day program were trained in Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies and techniques. The goal was to provide training that would allow staff at the centre to use communication strategies when working with their clients. Two training sessions were provided on AAC and communication strategies for all staff at the centre.…

The purpose of this study was to assess the developmental progression of preschoolers' abilities to draw and paint. Over 3 years, 68 children were observed easel painting 595 times and 65 children were observed drawing 545 times. Results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that (a) the complexity of children's drawings and paintings…

In this article, the author offers his critique on Holburn and Cea's notion on "excessive positivism" that person-centered planners are overconcerned with scientific verification and logical proof. The author believes that Holburn and Cea's notion blurs the important messages they have for person-centered planners by leading toward a debate about…

Background: Judgements about students' competence influence the goals of their individualised education programs (IEPs), the location of service delivery, and their placement in general education (GE) as opposed to special education (SE) classes. The purpose of this study was to describe how presumed competence to learn the GE curriculum was…

The need for an increased understanding of secondary and tertiary supports within a school-wide positive behavior support framework in high schools is discussed. Outcome data such as discipline referrals sent to the office seem to indicate that school-wide applications of positive behavior support can decrease the proportion of students who…

Background/Context: Culturally authoritative texts such as Text Revision of the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual-IV [DSM-IV-TR](American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2004) describe literate impossibility for individuals with disability labels associated with severe developmental disabilities. Our qualitative research challenges the…

The comparison of cognitive and linguistic skills in individuals with developmental disorders is fraught with methodological and psychometric difficulties. In this paper, we illustrate some of these issues by comparing the receptive vocabulary knowledge and non-verbal reasoning abilities of 41 children with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder in…

Increasingly, government, foundations, and others are asking community-based organizations for more evaluation information. Although the demand for this information may be increasing, the field knows very little about the way organizations are responding to this demand. Using data collected from interviews and a mail survey of community-based…

Background: Most standardized intelligence tests require more than 1hour for administration, which is problematic when evaluating individuals with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities (IDDD), because a significant proportion of these individuals can not tolerate lengthy evaluations. Furthermore, most standardized intelligence…