The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 mandate the use of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and positive behavioral supports and interventions for students with disabilities. Although much progress has been made in our understanding of functional analysis over the past 15 years, the extent to which these…

Expanding on Reese "et al." [2003], functional behavioral assessment interviews [O'Neill "et al.", 1997] concerning disruptive behavior were conducted with parents of 23 children with autism (6 females, 17 males, chronological ages [CA] 24-60 months) and 23 controls without autism pair-matched for CA, developmental age and sex. All children…

Global information processing and perception of facial age and emotional expression was studied in children with autism, language disorders, mental retardation, and a clinical control group. Children were given a global-local task and asked to recognize age and emotion in human and canine faces. Children with autism made fewer global responses and…

Recent legislation, especially the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, generated the closure of institutions for people with disabilities and inclusion into community residences and employment. It has been well documented that individuals with developmental disabilities often experience difficulties with employment including both obtaining…

Over the past decade, there has been increased interest in crimes against people with developmental disabilities (PWDD). While national and international information has been available on homicides of people in general, little attention has been given to homicides of PWDD specifically. This paper provides a preliminary description of homicides as…

Background:While disparities in the health status for persons ageing with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been well documented, interventions that address individual risks in physical, emotional, social and environmental health among this population are lacking. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of two in-home…

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test (ABLA) is a useful tool for choosing appropriate training tasks for persons with developmental disabilities. This test assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons are able to learn six hierarchically positioned discrimination tasks. A visual-visual nonidentity matching prototype task was…

We evaluated the influence of child location on the occurrence of self-injurious behavior (SIB) during functional analyses conducted in home settings. An initial functional analysis conducted with 2 children who had developmental disabilities showed undifferentiated patterns of SIB. Analyses of behavior during free play suggested that the child's…

The perspective of children with developmental disabilities regarding what is important is not fully understood due to limited means by which accurate data are collected. Many researchers rely upon teachers, parents, and siblings to provide information regarding the lives of children with developmental disabilities. This study differs from most…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends 2014, taking place in Porto, Portugal, from 4 to 6 of April. Psychology, in our time, offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and behavioral…

The amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004 reiterate the significance of producing real postsecondary education, employment, and independent living outcomes. However, current employment data continue to show widespread unemployment and very limited access to inclusive community environments and…

We examined the peer interactions and academic engagement of 23 middle and high school students with developmental disabilities within inclusive academic and elective classrooms. The extent to which students with and without disabilities interacted socially was highly variable and influenced by instructional format, the proximity of general and…

Longitudinal analyses on normal versus impaired functioning across 7 domains were conducted in children who had experienced profound institutional deprivation up to the age of 42 months and were adopted from Romania into U.K. families. Comparisons were made with noninstitutionalized children adopted from Romania and with nondeprived within-U.K.…

This study tested a classwide peer tutoring model using rule-governed responding to teach tutors to accurately present learn units during social studies instruction using a multiple baseline across participants with pre and post intervention probes. Three students, aged 8 to 10, in a self-contained 3rd/4th grade CABAS[R] classroom participated in…

Background: This qualitative study discusses family care-giving of children with developmental disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. Findings were reviewed in terms of the influence of culture on gender norms governing parental behaviour and aspirations. Method: An ethnographic approach is used in which parent participants were interviewed…