Autism is the most commonly studied of a spectrum of developmental disorders that are believed to be neurobiologically based but which, at this point, for lack of good biomarkers, are defined purely by behavior. In the last 20 years, the definition of autism has shifted in emphasis from extreme aloofness and positive signs of abnormality in repetitive and sensorimotor behaviors to a greater awa...

We conducted descriptive observations of 5 individuals with developmental disabilities and severe problem behavior while they interacted with their caregivers in either simulated environments (an inpatient hospital facility) or in their homes. The focus of the study was on caregiver reprimands and child problem behavior. Thus, we compared the frequency of problem behavior that immediately prece...

PURPOSE Continuous performance tasks (CPTs) are used to measure individual differences in sustained attention. Many different stimuli have been used as response targets without consideration of their impact on task performance. Here, we compared CPT performance in typically developing adults and children to assess the role of stimulus processing on error rates and reaction times. METHOD Parti...

This study examined sources of variability in physical activity (PA) of youth with developmental disabilities (DD), and determined the optimal number of days required for monitoring PA. Sixteen youth with DD wore two pedometers and two accelerometers for 9 days, including 5 weekdays (W) and 2 weekends (WK). A two-facet in fully crossed two-way ANOVAs were employed to estimate sources of variabi...

Historically, intervention programmes in intellectual and developmental disabilities have targeted the individual's special needs independent of the family and environmental context. This trend has been changing over the past two decades. This paper presents a literature review on changing trends in family support and the development of family quality of life (FQOL) and intellectual disability ...

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Objectives: Having a disabled child can have profound effects on the living conditions and the mental health of their family. Siblings of the children with disabilities have an important role in supporting them. Their physical, mental and emotional health may be at risk, therefore, their condition and living should be concerned and improved. The current study aimed to investigate the quality of...

In this paper, we review the literature related to the quality of life of adults with mental retardation/developmental disabilities (MR/DD) who live at home with their families. We examine the nature of the relationships between adults with MR/DD and their parents and siblings, the social worlds of adults with MR/DD, age-related functional and health issues that affect their quality of life, th...

Employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities (DD) have improved in the last several decades. There is increasing focus on helping people with DD sample more diverse employment options, including running their own businesses. The present study (1) evaluated the effects of a well-established behavioral teaching procedure on the acquisition of a sample of three broad classes...

[This corrects the article on p. e76 in vol. 2, PMID: 27275012.].