Background: To enhance social inclusion of people with intellectual disability, policy is aimed at increasing informal support networks. Nevertheless, staff continue to play a vital role in their support networks. Method: Six individuals with mild intellectual disability, living in community-based settings, were interviewed following a…

Background: Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered a valid diagnosis for children with intellectual disability, no studies have evaluated the invariance of ADHD symptom ratings across children with and without intellectual disability. Method: Parents completed ratings on the ADHD symptoms for 189 children with…

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of the system of least prompts (SLP) for increasing the levels of play behaviors in four young children with disabilities. A multiple probe across participants' single case research design was used to examine the relation between SLP and child-targeted behaviors. The results demonstrated that…

Purpose: This study examined whether college students with developmental language disorder (DLD) showed similar sensitivity to verb bias information during real-time sentence processing as typically developing (TD) peers. Method: Seventeen college students with DLD and 16 TD college students participated in a mouse-tracking experiment that…

Introduction: The social appearance anxiety is defined as tension and anxiety experienced by people when they are assessed by others in terms of their physical appearance and self-esteem is defined as feelings of one's personal self-worth, reflecting person's evaluation of his or her own worth. Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the…

The adoption of national literacy standards has resulted in writing becoming a priority for students with complex learning needs (CLN). Given extrinsic (school-based) and intrinsic (student-based) barriers, there is a need to understand how educational systems can provide innovative research- and standards-based writing instruction for these…

Despite decades of research, it has been difficult to achieve consensus on a definition of common learning disabilities such as dyslexia. This lack of consensus represents a fundamental problem for the field. Our approach to addressing this issue is to use model-based meta-analyses and Bayesian models with informative priors to combine the results…

Despite significant advances in autism research, experts have noted that children severely affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to have been understudied. Rigorous analysis of this observation has been limited, and the representation of severity has not been well-described. We assessed three domains of severity (communication ability,…

Pain is a multidimensional and subjective experience, and an ideal pain management regime needs to be comprehensive, integrative and involve all relevant persons. Multimodal interventions may include pharmacological, physical, social, psychological and spiritual approaches in order to address pain management at a molecular, functional,…

Background: Research suggests that having relevant contextual information can help increase the accuracy of emotion recognition in typically developing (TD) individuals and adults with an intellectual disability. The impact of context on the emotion recognition of children with intellectual disability is unknown. Method: Emotion recognition tasks,…

This qualitative, descriptive single case study focused on motivational curriculum and perceptions of learning ability in adults with intellectual disability (ID). A learning organization providing lifelong learning for adults with ID in the Northwestern region of the United States provided the geographic location for study. Adult students with ID…

There is a growing concern that public charter schools, as publicly funded entities, which are mandated to ensure FAPE [Free and Appropriate Public Education] and IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act], are lagging significantly behind public non-charter schools, when it comes to special education student enrollment. This potentially…

Relatively little research focuses on the incidence of declassification among young children who are transitioning from a special education preschool program to kindergarten. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the continuity of eligibility for special education from preschool to kindergarten as well as to determine whether or not…

Access to employment is important for students with disabilities (SWD). Employment improves finances, contributes to independence, and empowers people. Despite the value of employment, SWD are less likely to be employed due in part to their lack of job readiness. This study discusses the implementation of job training programs for SWD. The impact…

The field of special education's focus on moderate and severe disabilities (MSD) has undergone a number of changes in the past five decades. Some have been philosophical, some based on research, some based on mandated practices through U.S. law, and some based on the development of better technologies. While pioneers in the field first established…