Pain and surgery are phenomena that have frequently been mentioned in the discussions of the Ashley X case. This article describes how pain and surgery have been used selectively to argue for or against the Ashley X procedures. Few if any of the many publications discussing the merits of the Ashley-X procedures can be said to strike a reasonable…

Previous studies have identified a number of effective teaching procedures to increase verbal behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities. However, few studies have evaluated modifications of treatment procedures when children fail to acquire communication skills. In the present investigation, a 4-year-old boy with autism failed to…

Taking a young child to the doctor is not always the easiest of tasks, even when the child does not have a disability. This can be seen in the sheer number of children's books on the subject. Using key words such as "going to the doctor," a quick search of Amazon.com's children's book listing brings up a list of over 1,200 books. While the books…

It started as an "experiment" three years ago, designed to answer the question: can a person with an intellectual disability (ID) or developmental disability (DD), with the right supports in place, take on a highly visible leadership position as Co-Executive Director of a major nonprofit organization? The "experiment" of…

Level 6 of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) assesses the ease or difficulty with which persons with developmental disabilities are able to learn a two-choice auditory-visual discrimination. We investigated whether participants who passed ABLA Level 6 (Group 1) would more readily learn object naming (vocal tacts) than those who…

Public Law 99-457 extended the landmark Public Law 94-142 legislation to include early intervention for infants and toddlers with or at-risk for development of developmental disabilities. Currently over 300,000 infants and toddlers and their families in the United States receive services through Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who cannot speak at all or not intelligibly are frequently taught to use aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The majority of the research on the use of AAC with individuals with ASD has been single-case research studies. This investigation involved a meta-analysis of the…

Physical and sport educators care that Johnny and Susie cannot move as well as their peers. They try their best to improve their skill levels because they value participation and skillfulness in sport and physical activity. However, many times there is a deeper problem as to why Johnny or Susie cannot move as well as their peers. Physical and…

We evaluated the effects of three different methods of denying access to requested high-preference activities on escalating problem behavior. Functional analysis and response class hierarchy (RCH) assessment results indicated that 4 topographies of problem behaviors displayed by a 13-year-old boy with high-functioning autism constituted an RCH…

Participation in leisure activities has been identified as a factor that favors inclusion in the community and it also contributes to a better quality of life. This study analyzed the influence of certain personal characteristics and environmental factors in the participation in leisure activities of youngsters and adults with developmental…

Parents of children with a developmental disability require tailored parenting support, as their families have special needs and are at risk of increased burden. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Stepping Stones Triple P seminars, a brief group intervention for parents of a child with a disability. There were two seminars…

Aim: The aim of the present study was to standardize and generate psychometric evidence of the German language versions of two well-established English language mental health instruments: the "Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community" (ABC-C) and the "Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with Developmental Disabilities" (PAS-ADD) Checklist. New…

We evaluated an intervention procedure for teaching three students with developmental disabilities to independently operate a portable multimedia device (i.e., an iPod Touch[R]) to listen to music. The intervention procedure included the use of video modeling, which was presented on the same iPod Touch[R] that the students were taught to operate…

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease risk factors such as obesity and reduced cardio-respiratory fitness. However, there is limited data using laboratory measures for assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with DCD. The purpose of this study was to examine…

The impact of prenatal alcohol exposure on memory and brain development was investigated in 92 African-American, young adults who were first identified in the prenatal period. Three groups (Control, n = 26; Alcohol-related Neurodevelopmental Disorder, n = 36; and Dysmorphic, n = 30) were imaged using structural MRI with brain volume calculated for…