The study adopts a multimodal perspective, looking at adults' use of gestures in variation sets (VS; i.e. sequences of partial self-repetitions occurring in successive utterances of varying form) addressed to Spanish-learning toddlers in adult-child interactions. We seek to address the following question: Do adults make simultaneous use of VS and…

Background: People with a learning disability face health inequality. Those from ethnic minority backgrounds with a learning disability face 'double discrimination' as members of two marginalised groups. Methods: This codesigned review consolidated the evidence on the healthcare experiences of individuals and their carers from ethnic minority…

Purpose: Intentional communication acts, or purposefully directed vocalizations and gestures, are particularly difficult for infants at elevated likelihood for eventual diagnosis of autism. The ability to measure and track intentional communication in infancy thus has the potential to aid early identification and intervention efforts. This study…

The aims of this study were to (a) characterize the prevalence and interrelationship of Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals in academic (reading, writing, math) and developmental (language, social skills, behavioral) domains in a large U.S. national sample of autistic children across the elementary and secondary grade levels and (b)…

Black women have been expected to labor as caretakers for centuries, physically and emotionally rearing their own children and families while also nurturing generations of white children. Socio-historical expectations of how Black women should experience and respond to pain and labor are pervasive; Collins (1990) characterized this reality as…

Globally, not just in the case of Singapore, which is the focus of this paper, migrant care workers are a devalued and unappreciated workforce. Long before the pandemic, issues of migrant rights and care shortages were major topics of concern for feminist adult education and care work scholars, who advocate for the importance of critical hope and…

Research shows responsive caregiving enhances children's brain development, with parental knowledge predicting positive behaviors and outcomes. However, knowledge varies widely across educational levels, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. Despite evidence that this knowledge can be improved, no comprehensive metric exists for…

Introduction: This research investigated the views of different stakeholders regarding the specialist mental health service for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Singapore. Method Interviews were conducted with mental health professionals, family carers and service users with ID. Framework analysis was adopted to identify common…

Informal caregivers (family, friends, and neighbors) spend many hours each week with the children in their care and can have a significant impact on the children's social-emotional and academic development. Unfortunately, many informal caregivers lack the knowledge of how to do so. We conducted a qualitative 2-year study to investigate informal…

Background: Caregivers often avoid involving people with intellectual disability in end-of-life discussions and activities. One reason is fear that the person may become upset or psychologically harmed. Methods: Pre and post a 6-month intervention about end of life, we assessed depression, anxiety, and fear of death among intervention (n = 24) and…

Background: Interactions with professional caregivers affect the quality of support and life of people with intellectual disabilities and contribute to the occurrence of challenging behaviour. The present literature review provides an overview of factors facilitating or hindering meaningful staff-client interactions in people with borderline to…

This study aimed to describe the impact that autistic characteristics (core features of autism and co-occurring conditions) have on interactions with police. Twelve autistic adults and 19 parent/carers were interviewed about interactions with police in the past 5 years. Using content analysis, it was found that in most (92.3%) interactions,…

Caring for an individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in ideal circumstances can be stressful, and the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic created a high degree of disruption to life and stress to families living with an individual with ASD. We conducted an online survey of families in Michigan that revealed higher levels of stress in…

Background: We used a qualitative approach to explore the experiences of social care staff regarding the provision of positive behavioural support (PBS) to people with an intellectual disability at the height of the COVID-19 restrictions. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 staff who had recently completed a PBS workforce…

This paper presents two studies that explored community attitudes to autism in Australia; and autistic people and their families' perspectives of community attitudes. In Study One 2424 (primarily non-autistic) people completed a survey on autism-related knowledge and attitudes; identifying a number of misperceptions and knowledge gaps in the…