Background: People with intellectual disabilities have the right to live in the community. As social workers have an important role in decisions regarding residential settings, this study examined their recommendations regarding residential living arrangements of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Method: Using a factorial survey approach…

Research has documented both stable and nonstable trajectories of depressive symptoms across young adulthood, but has not explored the mechanisms that might explain change in level of depressive affect over time. To explore this question, the current study draws on data from an Israeli longitudinal study of 205 young adults who reported their…

Research has already demonstrated the impact of positive and negative social interactions on one's self-efficacy. In particular, empowering or degrading messages from school teachers may have a significant long-term effect on students' self- efficacy. This is especially pertinent to students with ADHD symptoms, since they face increased challenges…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often placed in inclusive mainstream education (ME) or exclusive special education (SE) settings. While ME settings usually offer less-intensive and structured intervention programs than SE settings, they offer more exposure to typically developing peers. A total of 121 children (2-5 years old) with…

The goal of the present study was to examine improvement in English as a foreign language (EFL) among different levels of readers with dyslexia, after an intervention program over a defined period. A total of 180 sixth-grade pupils from schools for learning disabilities in the Arab sector participated in the study, and 90 of the students who…

Objective: The current study aimed at examining the correlations between challenging behaviors, difficulties in functioning, and quality of life in institutionalized adults with intellectual disabilities. Methods: A sample of 53 people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior who reside d in a large institutional care facility was…

This study examined the contribution of executive functioning (EF) to improvements in psychiatric symptomatology following I Can Succeed (ICS; Kopelman-Rubin, 2012) psychotherapy, a skill-enhancement intervention designed to target EF and socio-emotional aspects of specific learning disabilities (SLD). Forty adolescents with SLD underwent ICS in…

The goal of this study was to examine whether a technological touch activated Collaborative Puzzle Game (CPG) increased positive social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). The CPG involved construction of a virtual puzzle by selecting and dragging pieces into the solution area on a touch screen table. The…

Challenging behaviors are deemed extremely common within the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) population. Numerous factors and their effects upon the presence and severity of challenging behaviors within this population have been investigated. However, there has been limited research to investigate the effects of cultural differences on challenging…

This study was conducted to designing a model of vocational training programs for disables. For this purpose desk review was carried out and the vocational training models/programs of Israel, U.K., Vietnam, Japan and Thailand were analyzed to form a conceptual framework of the model. Keeping in view the local conditions/requirements a model of…

We describe a survey of children with ASD aged 4-10 years. The main dependent variables were out-of-pocket expenditures for health services and hours of therapy. Multivariable logistic regression models were used in order to find independent predictors for service utilization. Parents of 178 of the children (87%) agreed to participate. The average…

The current study aimed to examine the implications of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and emotional sharing in marital adjustment and parental functioning among Israeli veterans of the 1982 Lebanon War. The sample consisted of combat stress reaction (CSR) veterans (n = 264) and non-CSR veterans (n = 209). Results show that traumatized…

Background: There is growing application of school-based screening to identify post-traumatic distress in students following exposure to trauma. The consensus method is based on self-report questionnaires that assess posttraumatic symptoms, functional impairment, depression or anxiety. Objective: The current research explored the possibility of…

Individuals differ in the type and severity of the difficulties they face when making a career decision. Relying on the Gati, Krausz, and Osipow (1996) taxonomy of career decision-making difficulties, we elicited the judgements of 28 career counselling experts about factors that contribute to the perceived "severity" of the difficulties.…

Objectives: (1) To assess the distribution of parental age and birth weight in a large cohort with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to compare them to Israeli national data. (2) To examine possible relationships between these risk factors and functioning. Methods: The study included 529 participants diagnosed with ASD using standardized tests:…