This study utilized a qualitative constructivist grounded theory methodology to explore the social and friendship experiences of adolescent girls with developmental disabilities (DD). Participants included 12 adolescent girls with DD and 13 parents of adolescent girls with DD. In-depth interviews were conducted with each participant to better…

Society often holds strongly biased and stigmatized opinions when it comes to what is deemed appropriate or inappropriate for the sexual behavior of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) or developmental disabilities (DD). This is typically due to the beliefs that the ID/DD population are either only capable of having child-like…

This study aimed to identify factors, particularly positive parenting styles, associated with unmet dental needs, defined as no dental visit for the past 12 months, in children with developmental disabilities (DD). Participants included 263 primary caregivers of children with DD. Children exposed to less positive parenting styles were more than…

Purpose: This study examines existing automatic screening methods for developmental language disorder (DLD), a neurodevelopmental language deficit without known biomedical etiologies, focusing on languages, data sets, extracted features, performance metrics, and classification methods. Additionally, it summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of…

Background: Sleep deprivation can decrease parental well-being and degrade mental and physical health in parents of children with chronic illness. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of sleep quality, psychological stress perception, and evening salivary cortisol concentration with self-esteem, optimism and happiness in parents…

Unpaid (informal) family caregivers provide vitally important supports to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), but receive little support or training. This study's aim was to examine how states across the nation supported informal family caregivers in their Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) programs for…

Religious practice plays a vital role in many lives, yet the experiences of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) remain understudied. This mixed methods study explored spiritual engagement among young adults with IDD living in a religious hostel and their mentors. Data analysis included content coding, word clouds,…

This study aims to investigate the practice patterns used by Portuguese speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with preschool-age children with pragmatic impairment and to identify the actual need(s) perceived by SLPs in this field. A total of 351 SLPs responded. The results reveal that 81.5 per cent of the respondents (n=286) reported working or had…

Organization-wide positive behavior support (OW-PBS) is a framework for improving quality of life and preventing challenging behaviors for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). This tiered PBS framework has been adapted from schools for use in disability services. Supporting people with IDD involves a variety…

This scoping review investigates the current landscape of developmental language disorders research within Sub-Sahara Africa, specifically examining challenges related to assessment, diagnosis, and management. A comprehensive literature search across three electronic databases yielded 20 relevant articles, primarily from South Africa and Nigeria.…

Purpose: This study investigates the acquisition of aspect markers by Mandarin-speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) in comparison to typically developing aged-matched (TDA) children and typically developing younger (TDY) children through the aspect hypothesis (AH). Method: A sentence-picture matching task and a priming…

Background: Although the Canadian Consensus Guidelines for Primary Care of Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities recommends conducting periodic health checks in primary care, uptake is lacking. This study seeks to understand factors influencing the conduct of periodic health checks and identify what needs to change to increase…

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) continue to experience disparities in health and well-being despite improved provisions of person-centered care. Patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) translates evidence into practice for meaningful outcomes. This piece describes findings from an environmental scan and…

Background: In 2016-17 an important consensus was established regarding the use of the diagnostic label 'developmental language disorder' (DLD) to describe children with a persistent language problem having a functional impact on communication or learning and in the absence of any other biomedical condition. Despite this consensus, past research…

Families of children with developmental disabilities in rural and underserved areas may lack access to direct service providers. Global pandemics such as COVID-19 have further affected access to service providers for most children, often shifting services online and increasing the role of technology and involvement of parents and caregivers in…