Background: Understanding the natural history of developmental speech and language impairments can support the selection of children whose difficulties are persistent rather than transitory. It can also provide information against which the effectiveness of intervention can be evaluated. However, natural history data are difficult to collect…

There is a legal and ethical imperative to provide increased access to community-based settings for young children with disabilities. One way to address that is through Special Education itinerant teaching. Our systematic literature review identifies primary interventionists, delivery locations, outcomes of interventions and an assessment of the…

Children with autism spectrum disorder are at increased risk for obesity compared to typically developing children. Many obesity intervention programs exclude children with autism spectrum disorder. There is little research on developmentally inclusive approaches to pediatric weight management. We examined the outcomes of children and families…

Background: We Love Reading (WLR) is a community-based reading intervention aimed at cultivating an interest in reading for pleasure among children through mobilising local community members to establish informal libraries and organise read-aloud sessions in public spaces. The programme targets primarily children between the ages 4-10 but is also…

Objective: In this paper, we describe an approach to engage young children in evaluating the impact of "La Vida Buena," a community health worker-led childhood obesity intervention for Latino children aged 5-8 years. Design: This paper describes the collaborative process used to pilot, refine, implement and evaluate evaluation…

Background: Obesity rates are higher in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (DD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. In TD children, family-based (FB) interventions for obesity are the most effective interventions. Research addressing obesity interventions for children with IDD is limited. Method: We adapted a…

Background: Public stigma, or negative community-held beliefs, about children with disabilities (CWDs) often leads to negative outcomes for CWD and their families. This study considers the effectiveness of four community-level interventions to reduce public stigma in two Lusaka, Zambia communities. Methods: This feasibility study describes four…

The vast majority of youth experiencing symptoms of a mental health (MH) disorder never access services. Barriers to access include unawareness of symptoms or where to get help, stigma, or lack of transportation or finances. Many school, family, and community collaboration models have begun to enhance access to MH supports. The present study…

Juvenile delinquency intervention and treatment programs have the broad goals of preventing crime and reducing recidivism by providing treatment and services to youth who have committed crimes. The following five statements are presented in this report and based on practices and programs rated by CrimeSolutions: (1) Juvenile awareness programs may…

Community implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is greatly lacking. A recent randomized community-based trial of an EBP for ADHD (Supporting Teens' Autonomy Daily; STAND) demonstrated suboptimal implementation and effectiveness outcomes. In the present study, we conducted an…

Motor impairment is common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and, as such, a potential target for interventions to improve adaptive functioning. This study investigated motor skill acquisition in children with ASD (n = 15, 12 males; ages 7-16 years) during iCan Bike Camp, a 1-week, community-based intervention (5 × 75-min sessions) to teach…

Peer volunteers have been found to be effective in delivering psychosocial interventions when they come from the same culture and share similar experiences as participants. We examined the clinical utility (feasibility and preliminary effectiveness) of a community-based, manualized, peer-delivered group counselling program to address the need for…

Children and youth diagnosed with developmental disabilities (DD) are at a higher risk for mental health concerns (e.g., anxiety) and physical health issues (e.g., obesity) when compared to their typically developing counterparts. An intervention that may be able to mitigate and even prevent these issues is physical activity (PA); however, despite…

As children with autism spectrum disorder become adults, social participation continues to be an area of need. Within creative arts, there is a growing body of literature about the use of theatre arts, improvisational theatre, and improvisational techniques as a way to address social participation for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The…

There is growing interest in Family Navigation as an approach to improving access to care for children with autism spectrum disorder, yet little data exist on the implementation of Family Navigation. The aim of this study was to identify potential failures in implementing Family Navigation for children with autism spectrum disorder, using a…