Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities and extensive support needs (ESN) face a high risk of experiencing traumatic events, which may lead to a myriad of negative mental and physical health and educational outcomes. Identifying symptoms and treating trauma, however, are challenging due to communication difficulties, vague or…

Aging family caregivers of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have unique circumstances setting them apart from the general caregiving population. Such differences include the extensive duration of the caregiving, and health concerns that manifest in the caregiver and individuals with IDD over time. Because of increasing…

Starting college can be an exciting time for students. College can also present new challenges, like learning unwritten rules, following unfamiliar procedures, and navigating new environments. Many students, including those with intellectual disability, benefit from explicit campus navigation and acclimation training in their new campus community.…

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are incredibly vulnerable to poor post-school outcomes. Two mandates, the Higher Education Opportunity Act and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, have emerged that may provide avenues to counter the discrepancy between the desire for career and college paths and actualization…

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience significant barriers to diabetes self-management (DSM), yet there remains a paucity of research within this population. An overview of the literature on people with ID and their caregivers' experiences of living with and self-managing type 2 diabetes is provided. Meta-aggregative methods were…

The prevalence of autism is rising, a dynamic attributed to numerous explanations (e.g. better diagnostic practices, decreased stigma). As this neurodevelopmental disability increases in visibility, disparities in its diagnostic rate grow. Female and Black populations in the United States have historically lower prevalence, are diagnosed later,…

Expertise among teachers of students with extensive support needs is not well understood, and beliefs about what constitutes quality education for this population vary widely. We discuss findings from prior research on teacher preparation in relation to high-leverage practices and expertise development for students with extensive support needs…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) (IDEIA) requires practitioners to use educational evaluations to assess students in K-12 schools that are suspected of having a disability. The resulting data provides the basis for determining whether students qualify for special education services, their precise educational…

There are longstanding calls for inclusive education for all regardless of student need or teacher capacity to meet those needs. Unfortunately, there are little empirical data to support full inclusion for all students and even less information on the role of data-based decision making in inclusive education specifically, even though there is…

Developmental disorders are a complex concept relevant to the multidisciplinary approach of children with special educational needs. The person with a developmental disorder is affected both by integrity -- the complete somatic and psychological structure and functionality -- and the ability to be a psycho-biological wholeness, the two aspects…

The Supports Intensity Scale-Children's version (SIS-C) was developed to provide a standardized measure of support needs of children with intellectual disability. Over half of the norming sample had a secondary diagnosis of autism. Using this subset of the sample, we engaged in exploratory analysis to examine the degree to which latent clusters…

Transition from high school to postsecondary education (PSE) and employment can be challenging for all youth, and particularly for youth with intellectual disability (ID) who are more likely to remain in poverty compared to their peers without disabilities (Mock and Love, "J Policy Pract Intellect Disabil," 9:289-297, 2012; Siperstein et…

The term severe disabilities refers to any student who is eligible for special education services in the United States under the category of moderate to severe cognitive impairment. The term takes into consideration a combination of shortages in both cognitive performance and appropriate behavior. Recently, in the field of severe disabilities, the…

Objectives: This paper seeks to explore from an historical perspective the way in which political climates impinge upon the public and professional perception of what constitutes appropriate provision for people with an intellectual disability. Methods: A systematic review of literature relating to policy and provision for people with an…

Since the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, educational services for students with extensive support needs (e.g., intellectual disability, autism, multiple disabilities) have been constantly evolving, with at least three overlapping waves of inquiry and practice. In this article we describe extant research, debate,…