Background: For families with adolescent children, the transition to adulthood is usually challenging. This period may be extra demanding for families with a child with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities due to the child's strong and persistent support needs. To support these families during this phase and to facilitate the transition…

Academic accommodations for students experiencing disabilities are increasingly available at postsecondary institutions. More studies of the efficacy of accommodations for student success are warranted, however. Given the increased gender gap in university participation, more focus on the unique impact of gender is also needed. Using a sample of…

Introduction: Challenging behaviors are common in individuals with developmental disabilities and pose significant challenges to their well-being and that of their families and communities. Method: We explored the occurrence and predictors of self-injurious behavior and aggressive/destructive behavior in 372 Canadian youths (aged 4-20 years) with…

Background: For almost two decades, students with intellectual, developmental and multiple disabilities have attended undergraduate classes at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada as part-time auditing students. They are supported by the Campus Life program. Campus Life employs graduate and undergraduate university students as academic…

Although today many more examples of postsecondary educational opportunities being made available to students are expanding for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), the majority of these opportunities are either segregated or partially segregated with few accommodating students with significant disabilities or challenging behaviors. In this…

Findings from the British Columbia Health Surveillance Registry revealed information about the age specific prevalence of mental retardation with no known etiology; association of mild and profound retardation with microcephalus, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, or epilepsy; and survival rates. (Author/CL)

To determine the attitudes of teachers of students who are visually impaired or blind about the use of contracted or uncontracted Braille for emergent readers, the author posted a questionnaire on three electronic listservs from October through December 2002 and received responses from 40 teachers in India, Canada, the West Indies, and the United…

Deinstitutionalization, now government policy in British Columbia, may signal the return of formerly institutionalized persons (including those with severe/profound retardation and multiple disabilities) to their communities. Possible problems may include community resistance and inadequacy or inappropriateness of existing services. (CL)

The document presents the final report of the Sensory Multihandicapped Project, which planned a comprehensive program for the education of children who were sensory multihandicapped (deaf blind, deaf with other handicaps, or blind with other handicaps) in Alberta, Canada. Project activities included reviewing the literature, visiting sites serving…

Alberta Education provides programming support and funding to school authorities to develop and implement special education programming for ECS children and students in grades 1 to 12. "Special Education Coding Criteria 2009/2010" outlines criteria within specific categories to help school authorities identify those children and students…

The report presents summaries of evaluations of the Coordinated Assessment and Program Planning for Education (CAPE) Program and the Coordinated Rehabilitation and Education (CORE) program for multi-handicapped sensory impaired and/or communication and behavior disordered children and their families in Alberta, Canada. Each program is evaluated…

A quasi-experimental approach was used to study the effect of different types of summer programs in Alberta (Canada) on the skills and behaviors of severely handicapped children ages 2 1/2 to 18 years. The experimental group, composed of 98 students, were enrolled in 6-week summer programs characterized as high structure (emphasizing specific…

The 2007/2008 Parents of Children with Severe Special Needs Survey is conducted to obtain opinions from parents of children with severe special needs to assess their satisfaction with key areas of the education system. A random sample of 816 parents of children with severe special needs completed the survey. Severe special needs descriptions…

Australian rehabilitation programs and centers for children and adults with mental and multiple handicaps are reviewed especially as they compare to similar programs in Canada. Such issues as deinstitutionalization, funding, normalization, vocational training alone vs. integrated programming, preservice and inservice training of personnel, and…