Advocacy has long been heralded as a way to create change for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families. However, without an established measure, it is difficult to accurately characterize advocacy activities. Drawing from extant research, the Advocacy Activities Scale was developed to assess three…

There is a strong and growing focus on self-determination in French-speaking countries, and this pilot study reports the technical adequacy of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report (SDI:SR) French Translation. Data were collected with 471 French-speaking youth with and without disabilities in Canada (Quebec), Switzerland, France, and…

Despite the advances on the assessment of quality of life, this concept is barely studied and is riddled with important limitations for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This article is aimed at validating a questionnaire to assess quality of life of children with ASD and intellectual disability (ID). Based on the KidsLife Scale, geared…

This article reports the results of an examination of the endorsement, reliability, and factorial validity of the VIA--Youth and assessment of character strengths and virtues developed for the general population in youth with and without intellectual disability. Findings suggest that, generally, youth with intellectual disability endorsed…

This study explores the psychometric properties of "Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report" (SDI:SR) in students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and without disabilities in China. The paper-and-pencil version of SDI:SR Chinese Translation (SDI:SR Chinese) was used to explore self-determination across students…

The purpose of this article is to move the field of intellectual and closely related developmental disabilities (IDD) towards a better understanding of evidence and evidence-based practices. To that end, we discuss (a) different perspectives on and levels of evidence, (b) commonly used evidence-gathering strategies, (c) standards to evaluate…

The purpose of this study was to explore the cross-cultural validity of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report, a newly developed measure of self-determination grounded in Causal Agency Theory. The tool was translated to Spanish and administered to American and Spanish adolescents. The sample was structured to include adolescents with…

The Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale is an internationally validated instrument for measuring family outcomes. To revise the scale for better alignment with the Family Quality of Life theory, the authors excluded non-outcome items in this revision. In this study, we examined reliability and validity of the revised scale (i.e., the FQoL…

The Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ), a brief screening tool for intellectual disability, was originally validated against the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third Edition (WAIS-III), which was superseded by the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) in the United Kingdom in 2010. This study examines the…

The adaptive behavior construct has gained prominent attention in human services over the last several years in Portugal, and its measurement has become an integral part of the assessment of populations with intellectual disability. In Portugal, diagnosis remains exclusively based on IQ measures, although some attention recently has been given to…

"Participation"--defined as engagement in life situations, including leisure and recreational activities--is associated with the improvement of people with disabilities' quality of life. Several specific instruments assess leisure, but none of them has been adapted to the Spanish context. The goal of this study is to adapt and validate the Spanish…

As curricula to improve medical students' attitudes toward people with disabilities are developed, instruments are needed to guide the process and evaluate effectiveness. The authors developed an instrument to measure medical students' attitudes toward people with disabilities. A pilot instrument with 30 items in four sections was administered to…

A meta-analysis of the stability of low IQ (IQ less than 80) was performed on IQ tests that have been commonly used--tests that were derived by D. Wechsler (1949, 1955, 1974, 1981, 1991, 1997) and those based on the Binet scales (L. M. Terman, 1960; L. M. Terman & Merrill, 1972). Weighted-mean stability coefficients of 0.77 and 0.78 were found…

This study investigated the effects of a training package (written manual, individual training session, and ongoing verbal feedback) on middle school peer tutors' use of embedded, constant time delay procedures and on the learning outcomes for students with significant cognitive disabilities in general education settings. The study data showed…

Because persons with mental retardation cannot be executed for murder, the diagnosis becomes a life and death matter. The American Association on Mental Retardation (now the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) and other associations agree that IQ alone is an insufficient criterion and adaptive functioning also…