For many decades, the six national disability advocacy organizations that endorse the legislative agenda contained in this document have recognized the vital role the federal government plays in the everyday lives of children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. From civil rights protections to community housing, from…

In the context of instructional demands, compliance and problem behavior can be considered concurrent operants. Of applied interest is increasing one response (i.e., compliance) while decreasing the other (i.e., problem behavior). Strategic arrangement of reinforcement can alter response allocation accordingly. Such schedules can also influence…

We investigated the effects of video modeling on the percentage of correctly implemented problem-solving steps by staff in a group home for adults with developmental disabilities, using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The treatment consisted of staff watching a video model demonstrating the correct implementation of a…

The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between cognitive and motor control by correlating individual performance on a variety of complex tasks in a normative sample of over 100 7-year-olds. While there are a few studies including children with specific developmental disorders (i.e. ADHD and DCD) showing that they share…

This study assessed effectiveness of simultaneous prompting procedure in teaching two middle school students with cognitive impairment decimal subtraction using regrouping. A multiple baseline, multiple probe design replicated across subjects successfully taught two students with cognitive impairment at middle school level decimal subtraction…

Background: Observational measures of parent and child behaviours have a long history in child psychiatric and psychological intervention research, including the field of autism and developmental disability. We describe the development of the Standardised Observational Analogue Procedure (SOAP) for the assessment of parent-child behaviour before…

Because characters with developmental disabilities (DD) in children's books are often the first images many children encounter, their accurate and multidimensional portrayal is critical. Therefore, the depictions of characters with DD in 41 children's books were analyzed. These books were eligible for the biennial Dolly Gray Children's Literature…

Review of 78 evaluations for 29 young children examined practices used in assessment of autism spectrum disorders in three settings: public schools, developmental disabilities eligibility determinations, and our hospital-based early childhood mental health program. While similar rates of classification of autism spectrum disorders were found…

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is commonly used to implement applied behavior analysis treatment for children with autism. The authors investigated a revised self-instructional manual for teaching university students to implement a 21-component DTT procedure to teach three tasks to confederates role-playing children with autism. Also, as a…

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are in need of effective physical fitness training programs. The aim was to test the effectiveness of a Virtual Reality (VR)-based exercise program in improving the physical fitness of adults with IDD. A research group (N = 30; mean age = 52.3 plus or minus 5.8 years; moderate IDD…

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic disorder that adversely impacts child development and health conditions, and is often associated with significant behavioral challenges. In particular, children with PWS typically exhibit extremely high levels of maladaptive behavior (e.g., excessive food seeking, hording, and binging; temper tantrums;…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 requires school systems to plan systematically for the transition from school to post-secondary education and/or employment and include measurable post-school goals in students' IEPs. Schools are required to coordinate activities, such as work experiences, to assist students in meeting their…

Methods and outcomes from functional behavioral assessment have been researched widely over the past twenty-five years. However, several important research questions have yet to be examined sufficiently. This quantitative review of developmental disability research aims to make comparisons of different functional behavioral assessment…

Sexual aggression in children and youths has received increased attention over the past twenty years as a result of increasing awareness of the problem. Yet despite this augmentation of interest, limited attention has been paid to sexual aggression in children and youths with developmental disabilities. As a group, juveniles are responsible for…

The objective of this study was to investigate a system of training designed by a Local Education Authority support service to promote interactive skill building with children on the autism spectrum. Using a case study approach, the study focused thematically upon outcomes for children, perceptions of schools regarding impact of the training…