Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability最新文献

Background: Support staff often face challenges with respect to experiencing meaningful moments of interaction with people with profound intellectual disabilities. Explicating such situational experiences of meaningfulness by staff members could facilitate the experience of meaningfulness for all staff.

Method: In this multiple case study, three staff members indicated specific moments of interaction as meaningful when viewing a recording of themselves interacting with a person with profound intellectual disabilities. Subsequently, they were asked to explain why they experienced each specific moment as meaningful. Their answers were thematically analysed.

Results: Two overarching clusters were identified as being related to meaningfulness: (1) experiencing meaning in certain actions, and (2) experiencing meaning in being together.

Conclusion: In interactions, support staff need to be aware of the tiny signals of people with profound intellectual disabilities and give meaning to them, and subsequently link "what happens" to their own professional aims and values to experience meaningfulness.

Background: In the last decades, quality of life (QoL) approaches have become increasingly important in planning services for people with intellectual disabilities. These approaches have recently been extended to the field of education. The Educational Quality of Life (EQoL) approach is defined as a multidimensional construct that looks at resources and curricula from a functional perspective, to ensure that students with intellectual disabilities acquire the functional skills they need throughout their lives to improve their QoL. To date, the functional use of mathematics in daily activities, also known as numeracy, has been largely neglected.

Objective: In this Opinions and Perspectives, we propose that numeracy should be seen as a tool for improving the QoL of young people with intellectual disabilities.

Conclusion: To this end, we suggest research be conducted to better understand how mathematics contributes to the achievement of math-related daily activities relevant to their life contexts and its interactions with QoL.

Background: Visual impairment (VI) is common among people with intellectual disabilities, with rates up to 19%. This study assessed the prevalence and risk factors for ocular disorders in 341 institutionalised adults with intellectual disabilities in Taipei City from January 2016 to December 2017.

Method: The cross-sectional survey included visual acuity testing, cycloplegic refraction, strabismus evaluation, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, tonometry, and retinal exams.

Results: Most participants were aged 20-39 years (72.9%), and 57.6% were male. VI or blindness was found in 19.7%, with strabismus (28.0%) and high myopia (23.6%) as key risk factors. Logistic regression indicated strabismus and high myopia significantly increased VI risk (OR 2.32 and 4.86). In participants with Down syndrome, the strabismus-VI association was stronger (OR 4.83 vs 1.73 without DS), with an interactive effect increasing VI risk sixfold.

Conclusion: Early ocular screening and targeted interventions are crucial to reduce VI risk in adults with intellectual disabilities.

Background: The Social Information Processing (SIP) model has helped to identify specificities in the stages preceding the execution of social behaviour in people with mild intellectual developmental disorder or borderline intellectual functioning. However, uncertainties remain about the involvement of the underlying processes and their developmental expression.

Method: The aim of this research was to explore the stages of SIP from a comparative and developmental perspective. A total of 175 participants, from childhood to adulthood, with or without mild intellectual developmental disorder or borderline intellectual functioning, watched videos before answering a structured questionnaire relating to the SIP model.

Results: The results showed developmental specificities in encoding, a hostile intention attribution bias and the absence of specific behavioural patterns in a population with mild intellectual developmental disorder or borderline intellectual functioning compared with a neurotypical population.

Conclusion: These advances are discussed in relation to current clinical remediation therapies and new exploration methods.

Background: The birth of a child with an intellectual or developmental disability inherently presents challenges to parents regarding the child's long-term future. This qualitative study examined the perceptions of parents who are kibbutz members, focusing on the non-profit organisation they established and the socioeconomic model they developed to ensure the future wellbeing of their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 participants and used a thematic analysis based on case study methodology.

Results: The socioeconomic model developed by kibbutz parents helps alleviate their concerns, but also gave rise to challenges related to kibbutz privatisation and the requirement for programs to be tailored to individual needs. The study highlighted how cooperation among families, the community, and government institutions can contribute to individual and collective solutions for people with disabilities.

Conclusion: These insights expand our understanding of parental social entrepreneurship within intentional communities and other contexts.

Background: This study sought to explore the effects of preservice teachers' contact with children with intellectual disabilities on their attitudes. The study was conducted against the backdrop of the exclusion and discrimination experienced by children with intellectual disabilities in Ghanaian schools.

Method: Twenty-two preservice teachers who interned at a special school for children with intellectual disabilities were interviewed before and after their practicums, and the gathered data underwent thematic analysis.

Results: There were changes in the participants' knowledge and willingness to interact and work with children with intellectual disabilities. For instance, before the practicum, the participants held stereotypical understandings of intellectual disabilities. However, after their practicums, their level of discussion of the core characteristics of intellectual disabilities had improved.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, this study concludes by recommending that contact with children with intellectual disabilities be included as an integral part of preservice teacher training programmes.

Background: Children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP) commonly have behaviour problems. The present study aimed to determine which of the most common clinical features experienced by children and adolescents with CP and intellectual disability are associated with behaviour problems.

Method: We investigated 11 possible associated variables including epilepsy, visual and hearing impairments, motor difficulties, communication and speech difficulties, pain, sleep disturbance, executive function (EF) deficits, type of CP, and parent stress. Thirty-eight parents or guardians of children aged 6 to 17 years with CP and intellectual disability (parent informed) completed proxy and self-report standardised questionnaires.

Results: EF deficits and parent stress were significantly associated with behavioural problems.

Conclusion: For children and adolescents with CP and intellectual disability, the present study suggests close attention should be placed on specific clinical features including EF deficits and parent stress when considering variables associated with behaviour problems.