Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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Self-advocates have the last say on friendship
- Authors:
- McVILLY Keith R., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Disability and Society, 21(7), December 2006, pp.693-708.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This study reports the friendship experiences and aspirations of adults with intellectual disabilities. The findings of a larger study were reviewed by an expert group of self-advocates with intellectual disability. The expert group confirmed some of the interpretation of the original data and expanded on issues. Friendship is established as an issue of concern among adults with intellectual disability. Consequently, policy makers and service providers need to be intentional about providing support for friendships. Participants asserted a positive self identity of being a person with intellectual disability and how this could be a basis for friendship. Also, people with intellectual disability demonstrated how they should be considered experts in their own life experience and how they can be effectively included in the formulation, implementation, analysis and review of research.
Growing pains: a personal development program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a specialist school
- Author:
- SHEPPARD Loretta
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 10(2), June 2006, pp.121-142.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
A personal development program, entitled ‘Growing Pains’, was developed for 11-to 15-year-old students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a specialist school. Seven topics were identified as important in supporting students through the physical and emotional changes of adolescence. A single-group, non-experimental outcome evaluation was conducted on a 20 week trial program. Teacher-developed checklists of observable skills were completed pre-and post-program for 68 participants yielding individual ‘personal development’ scores and whole group ‘topic’ scores, graphed to observe pre–post differences. Parents and teachers completed feedback questionnaires. Graphed data showed positive trends in individual personal development and most topic scores. The topic ‘personal hygiene’ showed almost no change across the group but parent and teacher feedback identified it as highly important. Causality cannot be established using this design; however, positive trends justified persisting with the program. Future studies might investigate effective means of teaching personal hygiene skills.
The experience of health and wellness in mothers of young children with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- MACKEY Sandra, GODDARD Linda D.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 10(4), December 2006, pp.305-315.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
This interpretive research study examined the health and wellness of mothers who have a child with an intellectual disability aged 0–5 years. Interview data were collected from five women living in a rural Australian city, and analysed using qualitative techniques. The research revealed that the mothers' health is backgrounded in time, space and the physical body, because their horizon of awareness is directed toward the needs of the child with a disability.
Construct and criterion validities of the Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP): a measure of support for people with disabilities
- Authors:
- GUSCIA Roma, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31(3), September 2006, pp.148-155.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP) measures individual functional needs in areas of daily living. It produces a support profile, detailing the time allocations for staff support to assist in each area of need. The Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) is a support needs assessment scale designed to provide an objective measure of a person's need for support in medical, behavioural, and life activities. SIS can be used for individualised support planning, clinical judgements regarding support needs, resource allocation and financial planning. The Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) assesses adaptive and maladaptive behaviours and gathers additional information to determine type and amount of special assistance that people with disabilities need. This study evaluated the construct and criterion validities of SNAP in relation to the SIS and ICAP, using assessment data from 114 individuals with a range of disabilities and levels of severity. Construct and criterion validities were supported for the SNAP by high correlations with SIS, ICAP, and staff estimates of support needs and by its capacity to discriminate between sub‐groups in expected ways. The results provide support for the use of SNAP as a support needs instrument.
The adaptation of a cognitive-behavioural treatment programme for special needs sexual offenders
- Authors:
- KEELING Jenny A., ROSE John L.
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 34(2), June 2006, pp.110-116.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article describes the process of adapting an existing sexual offender treatment programme for use with sexual offenders who have special needs in an Australian correctional setting. The population comprised individuals with a variety of special needs including borderline or mild intellectual functioning, severe literacy problems, significant communication difficulties, and other important deficits and special needs. It should be noted that some of these special needs individuals would not meet the diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability and this programme is aimed at the broader group inclusive of a number of special needs. Therapeutic adaptations have been guided by current research and practice, and specific examples are described and discussed. The authors believe that these adaptations may also have some utility for mainstream sexual offender treatment programmes. Research into the efficacy of these treatment adaptations with this population is currently underway.
Rater bias and the measurement of support needs
- Authors:
- GUSCIA Roma, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31(3), September 2006, pp.156-160.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The development and use of support need instruments for funding disability services is a relatively recent initiative. Although the use of these measures appears at face value to provide an objective measure of support needs, little is known about their psychometric properties, particularly with respect to rater bias and purpose of assessment. A measure of support that has been developed in Australia to provide estimates of service needs and associated funding is the Service Need Assessment Profile (SNAP). This study investigated whether SNAP scores obtained for different assessment purposes – research and funding – are affected by rater bias, by comparing SNAP to 3 other measures of support from 29 people with intellectual disabilities.The authors found that SNAP scores completed for funding purposes showed an individual's support needs to be much greater than comparison scores on both SNAP and the 3 other measures obtained for research purposes. The results suggest that support measures such as SNAP may significantly overestimate support needs when raters know the assessment is being used for funding purposes
Health screening and developmental disabilities
- Authors:
- IACONO Teresa, SUTHERLAND Georgina
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 3(3), September 2006, pp.155-163.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Adults with developmental disabilities often experience health disparities when compared with the general population. The aim of this Australian study was to describe health screening activities involving a large group of adults and explore how factors, such as living arrangement, type and severity of disability, and age, influence reported rates of participation. The study involved administering surveys to adults with disabilities and their immediate support persons (parents, carers, and professional support workers) and asking whether adults had visited a general practitioner (GP) and what was their participation in preventive services during the previous 12-month period. Participation in preventive screening services ranged between 3% (screening for sexually transmitted infection) and 58% (screening for elevated blood pressure), and rates for certain services appeared low, particularly in comparison with equivalent screenings in the general population. Results showed a relationship between participation rates and living situation, type of disability, and age, but not severity of disability. The results suggest that higher rates of participation in preventative health activities among those enrolled in formal services may reflect a greater obligation or concern among paid workers and possibly a lack of awareness of health issues by families, and also that screening disparities may be attributed to GPs who may be applying guidelines from the general population but who are not aware of disability-specific issues when examining adults with disabilities.
Shifting models of welfare: issues in relocation from an institution and the organisation of community living
- Author:
- BIGBY Christine
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 3(3), September 2006, pp.147-154.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The closure of institutions and relocation of people with intellectual disabilities to community living has been the focus of many nations' intellectual disability policies in the past three decades. The author studied the relocation of 58 people from a large institution to 11 small group homes in several Australian communities. Organizational factors that contributed to a mismatch of expectations on such dimensions as individualized support and inclusion were examined. The author discusses these in a broader context of social policy developments, including the privatization and contracting-out of service provision that shifted the government's role to one of purchaser rather than provider of services; regulatory concerns in employment practices that impacted the flow of information about residents; and contract specifications that focused on individuals, leaving responsibility for tackling systemic issues uncertain. Recommendations that draw attention to the renewed emphasis on partnerships rather than business relationships and attend to broader community development strategies that have concurrently occurred in Australia are provided.
An insight into implementing person-centred active support
- Authors:
- RHODES Junelle, HAMILTON David
- Journal article citation:
- Tizard Learning Disability Review, 11(3), July 2006, pp.31-36.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article reflects on the implementation of an active support staff training programme for staff working in community residential facilities for adults with an intellectual disability. Outcomes for people with an intellectual disability were consistent with recent research findings indicating that active support can lead to improved opportunities for participation in everyday activities within the home. The authors propose that the success of the training programme was largely influenced by three key elements' ensuring that there is expertise in, and support for, this approach to service provision among key service managers, provision of in vivo one-to-one practical staff training in addition to classroom-based theoretical input, and inclusion of elements of person-centred planning approaches in combination with active support. The authors concluded that future research should focus on how best to maximise the effectiveness of active support staff training.
A measure of engagement for children with intellectual disabilities in early childhood settings: a preliminary study
- Authors:
- KISHIDA Yuriko, KEMP Coral
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 31(2), June 2006, pp.101-114.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of engagement that could be used in practice with children with disabilities, including children with severe intellectual disabilities. The Individual Child Engagement Record (ICER) was designed to observe and record the engagement of individual children in order to identify optimal programmes for them. Using the measure, 5 children with mild to severe disabilities were observed in an inclusive childcare setting across 4 types of ongoing activities: routine, one to one instruction, planned, and child initiated. Generally, the children were better engaged in routine activities. The lowest level of engagement was found for planned activities. There were, however, differences across children with regard to the relative value of the different types of activities in promoting engagement. The measure allowed for the identification of activities that would provide better learning opportunities for children with significant disabilities.