The IDEA requires schools to evaluate and provide services to students who have a mental health issue that is deemed an educational disability or a mental health issue that is comorbid with an educational disability. Etscheidt and colleagues (this issue) propose a six component approach to securing school-based mental health services for students…

In educational systems around the world, there is a long tradition of using psychiatric diagnoses when providing support in the special educational field. For instance, many countries have special schools and special classes for students with psychiatric diagnoses such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism spectrum disorder and…

There is on-going debate about whether mainstream education is desirable for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Whilst some hold that 'inclusion' is a human right, and that interaction with mainstream peers leads to socio-cognitive gains, others argue that profoundly disabled learners require developmental curricular…

Introduction: Challenging behaviors are common in individuals with developmental disabilities and pose significant challenges to their well-being and that of their families and communities. Method: We explored the occurrence and predictors of self-injurious behavior and aggressive/destructive behavior in 372 Canadian youths (aged 4-20 years) with…

Many individuals with Autism and other developmental disabilities are identified and receive special education services to address deficits in cognitive and adaptive functioning. These deficits impact the student's ability to engage in daily living tasks independently. However, there are limited generalizable programs available to address these…

Background: Young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions (IDD-MH) experience significant mental health disparities. Barriers to services include transportation and stigma associated with services. Peer mentoring (PM) may be one solution to these barriers. Methods: We conducted exploratory…

Joint attention is developmental skill that is typically acquired through visual input during the first year of life in typically developing children. Children with visual impairments develop joint attention through alternate senses such as tactile and auditory input (Baron-Cohen, 1995) and show joint attention behaviors unlike those of typically…

Introduction: Diagnosing dementia in people with severe/profound intellectual (and multiple) disabilities (SPI(M)D) is complex. Whereas existing dementia screening instruments as a whole are unsuitable for this population, a number of individual items may apply. Therefore, this study aimed to identify applicable items in existing dementia…

Background: For almost two decades, students with intellectual, developmental and multiple disabilities have attended undergraduate classes at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Canada as part-time auditing students. They are supported by the Campus Life program. Campus Life employs graduate and undergraduate university students as academic…

The aim of this study was to develop a coding scheme that enables researchers and practitioners to conduct a detailed analysis of the communicative behavior of young children with significant cognitive and motor developmental delays. Currently, there is a paucity of methods to do conduct such an analysis. For the study, video observations of three…

"Dedifferentiation" represents the merging of the wider "intellectual disability" category with the broader one of "disability" generally; a product of the ascendance of the social model of disability. The recent re-emergence of the significance of impairment and embodiment in disability theory re-establishes the…

This qualitative study represents the perspective of a parent of a twice-exceptional (2e) child with autism and giftedness through the cultural lens of neurodiversity. Twice-exceptional children are those who are gifted and have a co-existing disability (Assouline, Foley-Nicpon, & Huber, 2006). This study used an autoethnography methodology,…

Despite the importance of writing skill development, we know very little about how writing instruction is provided to students with visual impairments (VI) with and without co-occurring disabilities (e.g., multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness). The purpose of this study was to survey a national sample of U.S. teachers of students with visual…

The purpose of this paper was to better understand the current practice of arts therapy in educational institutions in the Czech Republic comparing it to that in health-care institutions and other working environments. The research goal was to analyze the prevalence of the different fields of arts therapy, the main difficulties of clients, the…

Background: It is now expected that projects addressing the lives of people with learning disabilities include people with learning disabilities in the research process. In the past, such research often excluded people with learning disabilities, favouring the opinions of family members, carers and professionals. The inclusion of the voices of…