Research in developmental disabilities
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Although early intensive behavior interventions have been efficient in producing positive behavior outcome in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, there is a considerable variety in the children's progress. Research has suggested that parental and treatment factors are likely to affect children's response to treatment. The purpose of the current study was to examine the interrelating factors that impact children's progress, highlighting the influence of parent inclusion in treatment provision captured by parental stress, how faithfully the parents followed the treatment protocols and the intensity of treatment provided at home. ⋯ Variables of treatment progress and potential predictors of child outcome were analyzed in detail and mapped with regard to their relationships drawn from multiple regression analysis. Particularly, the study highlights an association between parental stress and staff treatment fidelity that interferes with decision making in treatment planning and consequently with positive behavior outcome. Such results provide important scientific and clinical information on parental and treatment factors likely to affect a child's response to treatment.
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This paper presents the results of the study which examined the effects of carefully designed physical exercise programs on the development of physical fitness in children with ID. The study sample consisted of 42 children with ID and 45 typically developing children. ⋯ The results were analyzed in terms of participation in the exercise program and level of intellectual functioning. While ID children scored significantly lower on fitness tests when compared with typically developing children, the study revealed an association between degree of ID and physical fitness.
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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between intelligence and visual motor integration skills in 5-year-old children with 22q11-deletion syndrome (22q11DS) (N = 65, 43 females, 22 males; mean age 5.6 years (SD 0.2), range 5.23-5.99 years). Sufficient VMI skills seem a prerequisite for IQ testing. Since problems related to these skills are reported in children with 22q11DS, weak VMI skills may contribute to the lower than average IQ scores commonly reported. ⋯ The results of this study suggest a characteristic neurocognitive phenotype for 5-year olds with 22q11DS. Deficiencies in visual perception and/or processing are negatively correlated with IQ scores, whereas deficiencies in motor skills do not have a relevant negative impact at this age. These findings provide further insight into 22q11DS specific neurocognitive deficiencies.
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This study compared mothers and fathers' regulation with respect to 29 children with intellectual disability (ID) and 30 typically developing (TD) children, matched on their mental age (MA), as they solved eight tasks using physical materials and computers. Seven parents' regulatory strategies were coded as they supported their child's identification of the objective, planning, attention, motivation, joint attention, behaviour regulation and evaluation. Children's performance was scored. ⋯ There was a significant interaction effect of medium and children's MA on overall parents' regulation and on their support of identification of objective and of planning. Most parental strategies were negatively linked with ID and TD children's performance in tasks. In both groups, with control for MA, parental support with the identification of the objective, with planning and with attention was negatively linked to the corresponding self-regulatory strategies of the children with each medium; however, parents' joint attention was positively linked with children's joint attention.
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Comparative Study
Family impact in intellectual disability, severe mental health disorders and mental health disorders in ID. A comparison.
Family impact (or family burden) is a concept born in the field of mental health that has successfully been exported to the ambit of intellectual disability (ID). However, differences in family impact associated with severe mental health disorders (schizophrenia), to ID or to mental health problems in ID should be expected. Seventy-two adults with intellectual disability clients of the Carmen Pardo-Valcarce Foundation's sheltered workshops and vocational employment programmes in Madrid (Spain), 203 adults diagnosed with schizophrenia from four Spanish Community Mental Health Services (Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and Navarra) and 90 adults with mental health problems in ID (MH-ID) from the Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu Health Care Site in Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona (Spain) were asked to participate in the present study along with their main caregivers. ⋯ The interaction of both conditions (ID and mental health problems) results in a higher degree of burden on families than when both conditions are presented separately. There was also an impact in caregivers to people with schizophrenia, this impact being higher than the one detected in caregivers to people with intellectual disability. Needs of caregivers to people with disability should be addressed specifically in order to effectively support families.