Sexual violence (SV) negatively impacts women with disabilities disproportionately, especially those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). The 2 populations are included in this article as there are overlaps in diagnostic criteria as well as similar risk factors associated with the experience of SV. Despite lacking…

If spirituality is, among other things, a matter of "connectedness", then how do we nurture spirituality in adolescents with developmental disabilities who seem largely disconnected? This article advocates the practice of friendship as one important Christian model of spiritual connectedness that finds its origins in the initiative of God and…

The following article outlines the methodological approach used to include people with learning disabilities as active participants in an oral history produced in Australia. The history sought to document life inside Kew Cottages, Australia's oldest and largest specialised institution for people with learning disabilities. This work furthers…

This literature review was conducted to evaluate the current state of evidence supporting communication interventions for individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. We reviewed 116 articles published between 1987 and 2007 in refereed journals meeting three criteria: (a) described a communication intervention, (b) involved…

Autism is a developmental disorder which affects a growing number of children worldwide. Since the disorder was first discovered by Leo Kanner almost seven decades ago there has been a lot of research trying to unravel this otherwise esoteric disorder. That research has contributed to better understanding of the disorder, shifting of…

Allison Buenger graduated from the Ohio State University with a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics in December 2009. Her works morph domestic objects into vessels of meaning, sculptures displayed in larger installations of textiles and found objects. Originally from Northeast Ohio, Allison resides in Columbus, Ohio, and works at Open Door…

Atypical antipsychotic medications are commonly used in large-scale residential care facilities for adults with developmental disabilities. While the benefits of this class of psychotropics are noted, debate exists whether the side effect profile of these medications outweigh their therapeutic benefit, especially in those who use them long-term.…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of teaching an integrated requesting-rejecting sequence. Four children with developmental disabilities were taught to request missing items and reject wrong items using either speech-generating devices (SGD) or picture-exchange (PE) communication. Data showed that the introduction of the…

This study evaluated whether two children with developmental disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through an Automatic Pointing Assistive Program (APAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e. a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, and is able to intercept mouse click action). Initially, both participants…

This paper explores the aims and purpose of long term art therapy. This is done by focusing on the experience of a woman with learning disabilities whom we have called Isobel White (pseudonym). In this paper we set out a theoretical context and then consider key aspects of the therapy process. We have included excerpts from reflective discussions…

High stress and burnout are common for early childhood special educators, contributing to high rates of attrition, diminished educational effectiveness, and high turnover. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a promising approach for the prevention and treatment of a wide variety of problems. Using a randomized wait-list control design, this…

The national Quality Improvement Center on early Childhood (QIC-eC) funded four research and demonstration projects that tested child maltreatment prevention approaches. The projects were guided by several key perspectives: the importance of increasing protective factors in addition to decreasing risk factors in child maltreatment prevention…

There is limited research demonstrating direct instruction (DI) as an effective language intervention for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities (DD). Existing research has shown that instruction using partial implementation of DI programs resulted in student learning (Ganz, 2007) and instruction using whole…

The study examined the effects of teaching presentation skills and post-school options to three high school students with developmental disabilities. While previous research has indicated students with learning disabilities can learn both academic and life skills within the same activity (Collins, Hager, & Galloway, 2011; Falkenstine, Collins,…

Collaborative consultation has been widely adopted in school-based occupational therapy practice; however, limited research has examined how collaboration between educators and occupational therapists contributes to students' outcomes. The purpose of this study was to describe the nature of collaborative working in two cases of school-based…