Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience high rates of emotional and behavior problems. The Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF) is one of the few tools developed to assess these problems in this population. It consists of a 10-item Social Competence section and a 66-item Problem Behavior section. The goal of…

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurogenetic developmental disorder characterized by an increased affinity for music, deficits in verbal memory, and atypical brain development. Music has been shown to improve verbal memory in typical individuals as well as those with learning difficulties, but no studies have examined this relationship in WS. The aim…

The public's increasing demands for greater accountability and a better return on investment from research supported by federal funding requires that organizations studying and solving problems in areas like health, education, disability, and child mental health document the impact of their work. Human service and educational professionals agree…

Protection of those deemed vulnerable has received increasing attention since 2000. This article reports on care staff views of vulnerability using original data from a research study (Parley. "Vulnerability and abuse: an exploration of views of care staff working with people who have learning disabilities," PhD Thesis, 2007) in which care staff…

Learning to use the toilet is an important developmental step for a child's independence, health and dignity. It can be particularly difficult to teach continence skills to disabled children with aggressive or challenging behaviour. This study showed how Azrin & Foxx's (1971) basic toilet training procedure could be modified to teach a 13-year-old…

Teaching practices in natural settings such as activity-based intervention (ABI) are suggested as alternatives to be used in effective early childhood education. As a multidisciplinary model, ABI consists of four components, which are choosing activities according to the child's interests; teaching generalizable goals embedded in routines and…

We identified factors associated with the empowerment of Japanese families using the Family Empowerment Scale (FES) to contribute to the improvement of empowerment in Japanese families raising a child with developmental disorders (DDs). The study was conducted in 350 caregivers who raised children aged 4-18 years with DDs in urban and suburban…

Purpose: To assess the utility of a wide range of language measures (phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics) for the identification of adults with developmental language impairment. Method: Measures were administered to 3 groups of adults, each representing a population expected to demonstrate high levels of language impairment, and to…

Background: There is a relative lack of measures tailored to the study of fathers of children with developmental challenges (DCs). The goal of the current study was to create and validate a brief measure designed to capture the perceptions and experiences of these fathers. The Fathers of Children with Developmental Challenges (FCDC) questionnaire…

Children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are at an increased risk for a range of motor, sensory and social challenges which affect their ability to function at school. The current small scale, qualitative study sought to investigate how children with ASD and/or DCD felt about the transition to…

Background: Comorbidity among developmental disorders such as dyslexia, language impairment, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental coordination disorder is common. This study explores comorbid weaknesses in preschool children at family risk of dyslexia with and without language impairment and considers the role that…

Early intervention (EI) provides critical services to families with young children who have diagnosed disabilities, developmental delays, or who are at-risk for developmental delays. Very little is known about the experiences of adolescent mothers who have children who qualify for EI services. The authors investigated the perceptions of adolescent…

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perspectives about evidence-based practices (EBP) and decision-making for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Given the current EBP movement, our study sought to understand practitioner definitions and perspectives on EBP and decision-making. Interview data from nine special…

Dental care among young adults with intellectual disability (ID) is poorly documented and largely unmet. By using population-based data from the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Follow-Up Study, we assessed factors associated with at least one or two dental visits per year among young adults with and without ID. Significantly fewer…

This article presents findings from an ethnographic study on preventive paediatric check-ups in Germany. In accordance with system-theoretical and governmentality approaches (referencing Foucault), preventive check-ups are conceptualised as fields where risk concepts related to children's development are applied, produced and reworked. In order to…