Research in Developmental Disabilities

BACKGROUND: This early intervention study investigated the effectiveness of a relationship-based, developmental enhancement process for children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol in the South African context. METHODS: Groups were created according to the child's level of risk for alcohol-related developmental issues based on each mother's alcohol use during pregnancy as assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Primary caregiver/child dyads were the focus of the intervention and child development was monitored by the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)...

BACKGROUND: At present, there is a lack of valid and reliable instruments that can measure parental involvement in the transition from kindergarten to primary school of children with developmental disabilities (DD) in China. AIM: This study seeks to develop and validate the questionnaire on Parental Involvement in Transition from Kindergarten to Primary School (PITKPS) for children with DD in China. METHODS: A total of 241 parents of children with DD participated in Study 1, and another 247 parents participated in Study 2...

BACKGROUND: The Motor Behaviour Checklist (MBC) was designed to assist classroom and physical education (PE) teachers in assessing their students' motor-related behaviours. Studies on identification and behaviour problems among children in classrooms are rare in the Arabian context, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). AIM: This study examines the structural and discriminant validity of the Arabic version of the MBC and assesses the effects of gender, age and type of disability on children's behaviour...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong condition that requires autism-specific services. However, the quality of autism services in Saudi Arabia has rarely been examined. Therefore, exploring issues from the parents' perspective is crucial to improve the quality of life (QOL) outcomes for such a population. Semi-structured interviews were administered to nine parents of individuals with ASD, and thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Results showed that parents' experiences regarding the quality of autism services varied...

The contribution of dyadic teacher-child interactions to the development of children with special needs has received little research attention. This study examined whether teachers' non-intrusiveness during one-on-one playtime predicts developmental outcomes of children with developmental delay. Participants were 47 teachers and one of their kindergarteners diagnosed with developmental delay. At Time 1, teachers' non-intrusiveness during teacher-child play interactions was assessed. At Time 1 and 12 months later, kindergarten therapists reported on children's adaptive behavior, school performance, and internalizing and externalizing problems...

Growing international consensus in recognising rights of individuals with disability to enabling environments has spurred on provision of services for support for these individuals. The provision of this support has however been variable across the globe, often depending upon the economic development and social stigma associated with disability within individual countries. Individuals with Mental health learning disability have experienced even more stigma and limitations to access care. Qatar, a young and economically prosperous country, has adopted this rights-based approach to developing services for individuals with learning disability...

BACKGROUND: TV-series and movies are important sources of knowledge about autism for the general public. AIMS: This study's purpose was to elicit autistic adults' opinions on portrayals of autistic characters in film and television productions and how this can be improved. METHODS AND PROCEDURE: In this study, we examined the recommendations of autistic adults (n = 798, Mage = 30.3, 48% female) and non-autistic adults (n = 1463, Mage = 35...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The role of domain-general cognitive abilities in the etiology of Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a hotly debated issue. AIMS: In the present study, we tested whether WISC-IV cognitive profiles can be useful to single out DD. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Using a stringent 2-SD cutoff in a standardized numeracy battery, we identified children with DD (N = 43) within a clinical sample referred for assessment of learning disability and compared them in terms of WISC cognitive indexes to the remaining children without DD (N = 100) employing cross-validated logistic regression...

INTRODUCTION: Known protective factors for long-term outcome in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are early diagnosis and a stable, non-violent supportive environment. Which factors contribute to the stability of care is not yet known. Thus, the aim of our study was to evaluate whether the age at diagnosis and the complexity of brain dysfunction play a role for placement changes in children with FASD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An online survey was conducted among caregivers and professionals caring for children with FASD and seeking help at the German FASD Competence Centre Bavaria (N = 232)...

BACKGROUND: Movement difficulties are common in ADHD, however, the implications of their co-occurrences on cognitive and maths performance is unknown. AIMS: This study set out to examine whether cognitive and maths performance of children with high ADHD symptoms differs depending on the co-occurrence of movement difficulties given evidence that weaker visuospatial processing, known to be important for maths performance, differentiates ADHD and DCD. We also aimed to examine whether relationships between cognition and maths in ADHD differs depending on co-occurring movement difficulties...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Emotional competencies are skills necessary to adequately understand, express, and regulate emotional phenomena. Among the emotional competencies is emotion regulation. Not having adequate development of this emotional competence is related to psychological problems such as depression. One of the characteristics of individuals with developmental disabilities is the presence of difficulties with emotion regulation. These difficulties can affect an individual's autonomy, social competence, and the development of independent life...

BACKGROUND: High levels of aggressive behavior in children with mild intellectual disabilities to borderline intellectual functioning (MID-BIF) are associated with deviant social information processing (SIP) steps. The current study investigated deviant SIP as a mediating mechanism linking both children's normative beliefs about aggression and parenting to aggressive behavior in children with MID-BIF. Additionally, the mediating role of normative beliefs about aggression in linking parenting and deviant SIP was investigated...

BACKGROUND: Language development is critical to various outcomes in young children with developmental disabilities (DD), including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-ASD delays. However, language development trajectories in young children with DD in non-Western populations remain unclear. AIMS: To investigate the language development trajectories of young children with DD in Taiwan. We investigated the relationship between trajectory class assignment and diagnostic outcomes (ASD or non-ASD delays) at 3 years after enrollment in the study and the differences in early abilities among children in different trajectory classes...

This study aimed to examine the role of compounding awareness in vocabulary knowledge acquisition among Chinese children with blindness compared to sighted children during the early (grades 1-3) and late (grades 4-6) primary school years, through a sample of 142 children with blindness. Regression analysis was used to explore the distinctive role of compounding awareness in vocabulary knowledge among children with blindness. First, the children's age, working memory, and rapid automatized naming were entered...

BACKGROUND: Parents' promotion of autonomous decision-making (PADM) is essential for adolescents with disabilities and constitutes the basis for maturation of self-determination (SD). SD develops based on adolescents' capacities and the opportunities offered to them at home and at school, to make personal decisions regarding their life. AIM: Examine the associations between the PADM and SD of adolescents with disabilities from their own perspective and that of their parents...

The visual attention span (VAS) deficit theory of developmental dyslexia (DD) indicates that impaired VAS may cause reading disabilities. However, whether people with dyslexia have VAS deficit is still controversial. The current review evaluates the literature regarding the relationship between VAS and poor reading, as it also examines the possible moderators in measuring the VAS capacity of individuals with dyslexia. A total of 25 papers, with participants of 859 readers with dyslexia and 1048 typically developing readers were included in the meta-analysis...

This article reports the first group-based intervention study in the UK of using speech to-text (STT) technology to improve the writing of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Over a period of five years, thirty children took part in total from three settings; a mainstream school, a special school and a special unit of a different mainstream school. All children had Education, Health and Care Plans because of their difficulties in spoken and written communication. Children were trained to use the Dragon STT system, and used it on set tasks for 16-18 weeks...

BACKGROUND: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) are often at risk of developing emotional problems. AIMS AND METHODS: The co-occurrence of anxiety and depression with ASD and/or ADHD was determined by exploring the association with children's clinical and neuropsychological functioning and their parent's mental health. To this end, we assessed 295 preschoolers (PRE; 4-5 years old) and 486 school-aged children (SCH; 10-11 years old) in Tarragona, Spain...