Background: Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterised by several typical somatic characteristics and by developmental disabilities with various degrees of severity. Focusing on children with RSTS, the aim of this study was to describe their psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental…

Background: The theoretical understanding of firesetting behaviour has predominantly been developed with men in prisons or psychiatric hospitals without neurodevelopmental disabilities. Consequently, there is a lack of evidence regarding the validity of current theory when applied to adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. Method:…

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder have impairments in social behaviours that require systematic intervention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cool versus not cool procedure implemented in a small group (dyad). Method: The cool versus not cool procedure consisted of the researcher demonstrating the targeted behaviour…

Background: Personal construct theory (PCT) is a constructivist approach to understanding human thought and action. Preliminary research focusing on applying PCT concepts and methodologies to understanding individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) has suggested its utility for both research and clinical interventions. The developmental period…

Background: Adults with Down syndrome (DS) are at risk for age-related painful physical conditions, but also for under-reporting pain. Pictograms may facilitate self-report of pain, because they seem suitable for the global visual processing in DS and for iconic representation of abstract concepts. Method: Participants (N = 39, M age = 41.2)…

Background: Research findings on vocabulary development in children with Down syndrome are inconsistent. This study aimed to analyse the developmental trend of vocabulary growth in children with Down syndrome and the relationships between vocabulary and chronological and developmental age. Method: Children's vocabulary size was assessed by a…

Background: Children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) are reported to have socio-communicative impairments. Although many of these children are diagnosed with intellectual disability (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), these populations are seldom used as control groups. Hence, information regarding syndrome-specific…

Background: Our main purpose was to compare the lexical development of Spanish children with Down syndrome (DS) and children with typical development (TD) to investigate the relationship between cognitive and vocabulary development in comprehension and oral and gestural production. Method: Participants were 186 children with DS and 186 children…

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the degree to which children with intellectual disability (ID) depend on manual signs during their expressive vocabulary acquisition, in relation to child and social-environmental characteristics. Method: Expressive vocabulary acquisition in speech and manual signs was monitored over a 2-year period…

Background: It is generally assumed that children with Down syndrome (DS) present a deficit in lexical production relative to their cognitive abilities. However, the literature on this topic has recently shown several contradictory results. In addition, most studies only consider vocabulary production in its vocal modality. However it is also…

Background: Little research has been carried out on empathy and theory of mind in offenders with intellectual disability (ID) and these concepts are often poorly defined. Method: Various models of empathy and theory of mind are discussed and scores on 2 empathy and 3 theory of mind tasks are compared for 25 offenders with ID and 25 non-offenders…