For the last two decades, the Australian Federal Government has taken responsibility for funding disability employment services, and the states and territories are responsible for accommodation, respite, and community access services (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2004-2011). Replacing the existing Commonwealth State Territory…

The number of children identified as having intellectual or developmental disability is rising worldwide and their education has been found wanting. It has been said that "they simply need better teaching." At the same time, there is an increasing evidence base that pedagogy that is based on the discipline of behaviour analysis offers the best…

This paper identifies and discusses recent trends in the percentage of students with a disability identified in Australian schools in the 10-year period from 2000 to 2009. In addition, these trends are examined across government and nongovernment schools and considered in the light of the definition of disability used by Australian schools. In…

Linking the concepts of intellectual disability and spiritual development creates a challenging mixture of sociological and theological issues. Formal definitions of the concepts can be less than conclusive but it remains a fundamental issue to consider if there may be some minimal level of intellectual competence below which it is not feasible to…

This paper provides the conceptual foundations for a study funded by the Australian Research Council and industry partners Yooralla and Jewish Care titled "Understanding 'encounter' as a dimension of social inclusion for people with intellectual disability." Since the early 1980s, disability policy has envisioned the social inclusion of people…

Older people with a lifelong disability, such as intellectual disability, face significant barriers to enjoying "active ageing" as they transition into retirement. Active ageing involves enhancement of quality of life through optimising the health, participation, and security of individuals and populations (World Health Organization [WHO], 2002).…

The aim of this paper is to encourage debate about the use of creative visual approaches in intellectual disability research and discussion about Internet publication of photographs. Image-based research with people with intellectual disability is explored within the contexts of tighter ethical regulation of social research, increased interest in…

Vitamin D insufficiency has been associated with adverse health consequences, principally increased falls, osteoporosis, and fractures. Associations have also been proposed between vitamin D insufficiency and diseases of the immune system, cancer, psychiatric disease, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease and abnormalities of glucose…

Background: Disability research data often exist in the form of individual records located within discrete registers that may extend across sensitive political boundaries. Method: This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with using linked health and administrative data for disability research, with examples from research…

Although the presence of intellectual disability (ID) per se is not usually regarded as a health problem, the biopsychosocial implications of cognitive impairment contribute to the vulnerability of adult patients with ID in any healthcare system. The adult patient with ID differs from a patient in the general population in terms of health…

In the United States, data on the number of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (ID/DD) living in institutional and other congregate care settings have been gathered and reported since 1977 through the Residential Information Systems Program (RISP) at the University of Minnesota (e.g., Prouty & Lakin, 1997). These data were…

The value of a videotaped self-modelling and self-monitoring treatment program was investigated in the present study. The focus was the effect of the treatment program on the off-task classroom behaviour of 3 male children with autism. The participants were aged between 9 and 11 years. Two of the children were described as severely autistic and…

Over the past 30 years, research in the area of applied behaviour analysis has led to a rich knowledge and understanding of the variables that influence human behaviour. This understanding and knowledge has given rise to a range of assessment and intervention techniques that have been applied to individuals with challenging behaviour.…

The present study investigated the relationship between behaviours exhibited by children with pervasive developmental disorders, particularly autism, and maternal stress levels. Participants consisted of 60 mothers who had a child diagnosed with a pervasive developmental disorder by an independent practitioner using DSM-IV criteria. Children were…

This paper identifies and discusses recent increases in the percentage of students with a disability identified in Australian schools. At the moment, there is an unprecedented level of international debate about the nature of disability which is impacting on the identification of disability (see Donoghue, 2003; Greenspan & Switzky, 2003). In …