Few studies have explored the subjective mental health of adolescents with intellectual disabilities, while proxy ratings indicate an overrepresentation of mental health problems. The present study reports on the design and an initial empirical evaluation of the Well-being in Special Education Questionnaire (WellSEQ). Questions, response scales,…

As part of efforts throughout China to improve the outcomes of individuals with disabilities, the Shanghai government has launched a campaign to screen at least 95 percent of newborns. To assist in meeting this goal, the Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), Third Edition, was translated into Chinese and the feasibility of a screening system…

The PEP-R (psychoeducational profile revised) is an instrument that has been used in many countries to assess abilities and formulate treatment programs for children with autism and related developmental disorders. To the end to provide further information on the PEP-R's psychometric properties, a large sample (N = 137) of children presenting…

Purpose: Accurate description of an individual's communication status is critical in both research and practice. Describing the communication status of individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities is difficult because these individuals often communicate with presymbolic means that may not be readily recognized. Our goal was…

Although often lacking "malice", aggression is fairly common in children with intellectual or developmental disability (I/DD). Despite this, there are no scales available that are appropriate for an in-depth analysis of aggressive behavior in this population. Such scales are needed for the study of aggressive behavior, which is a common target…

In this study, self-reports of 34 individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) were compared with proxy ratings from family and providers. Correlations between the ratings of individuals with DD and the proxy raters were low, as were the correlations between family members and providers. In all scales except "cognition," the individual with DD…

The Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) were developed to standardize communication sampling procedures in assessing preverbal and early verbal stage children. To assess interrater reliability in using the scales with children with developmental disabilities, eight children (ages 33-113 months) with developmental disabilities were…

The use of anti-epileptic medications (AEDs) is much higher in individuals with intellectual disabilities than in the general population. As many of these individuals rely on such medications, clinicians should consider psychometrically sound instruments for assessing adverse side effects of these medications as one aspect of routine clinical…

To assess the psychometric characteristics of the Verbal Behavior Assessment Scale, the 15-item questionnaire was administered to pairs of caregivers of 115 individuals with developmental disabilities. Exploratory factor analysis involving 11 more participants revealed evidence concerning the distinction of three different communicative functions…

Comparison using paired t-tests of parent and teacher ratings for 16 preschool children on the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale found no significant differences between parent and teacher ratings of expressive language, but a significant difference on the receptive language subscale. However, interrater reliability was relatively low…

The Functional Ability Rating Scale (FARS) is an instrument developed by local direct service workers in the field of human services to provide an objective measure of an individual's degree of limitation in seven areas of major life activity (MLA). The subject's level of functioning is assessed in Self-Care, Language and Communication, Learning…