Studies have found that low marital satisfaction, parenting stress, and child behavior problems are linked in families of children with developmental delays (DD). However, previous investigations examining the relationships between parenting stress, child behavior problems, and marital satisfaction rarely examine the interrelationships of these…

Psychotropic medications are a common treatment for mental illness in people with developmental disabilities. Medication adherence is a critical determinant of the effectiveness of psychotropic drugs, but psychotropic medication adherence research specific to this population remains limited. This retrospective study analyzed Marketscan®…

The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation for Children (ASD-OC) is a 45-item observation scale used to assess autistic symptomatology. The reliability of this measure has been established in previous research; therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate its validity among a sample of children (1-15 years). The large correlation between the…

Social deficits are a hallmark characteristic among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), yet few evidence-based interventions exist aimed at improving social skills for this population, and none have examined the maintenance of treatment gains years after the intervention has ended. This study examines the durability of the Program…

Little is known about the behavioral characteristics of adults with Down syndrome (DS) without dementia. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the psychopathology and social behavior among adults with DS compared to adults with nonspecific intellectual disability (NSID). Thirty-four adults with DS were individually matched with 34…

This case report concerns a woman with intellectual disability, schizoaffective disorder, and avoidance and refusal of having her blood drawn. She required but refused blood draws to properly monitor the therapeutic dose of a necessary psychotropic medication. During intervention at a community-based habilitation setting and under simulated…

Previous studies indicate that families construct daily routines that enable the household to function smoothly and promote family quality of life. However, we know little about how activities are distributed between parents caring for a child with an intellectual disability (ID), particularly in Latino families. To address this gap, we…

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have higher rates of depressive symptoms than parents of typically developing children and parents of children with other developmental disorders. Parental depressive symptoms are strongly associated with problem behaviors in children; however, the mechanisms through which parental…

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a well-described inherited cause of intellectual disability and the most common known genetic cause of autism. Social deficits in girls with FXS are not well understood. To better understand barriers to social functioning that may contribute to mental health outcomes, we administered a theoretically based social…

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) demonstrate facial emotion recognition and expression impairments. These impairments may contribute to social disability and may put children with ASDs at risk for developing further mental health problems. In this pilot study, we examined the use of a coach- and computer-assisted facial emotion…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders are often considered to have difficulty with using facial cues (e.g., cues from the eye region) to understand others' mental states. One of the pioneering assessments to test competence in this skill is the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes-Test" (RMET). In order to find out more about the…

Early detection of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a prerequisite for early intervention. Questionnaires may offer a cost-effective alternative to clinician-led screening in identifying toddlers and preschoolers in primary-care settings requiring specialized ASD assessment. Parents of 97 children aged 16-60 months attending childcare centers…

Adolescents with high-functioning autism (HFA) possess core social and pragmatic deficits, which interfere with normal relationship development. At a time when friendships are increasingly important, many adolescents with HFA realize they are different from their peers. Initial research has indicated that adolescence is the time when symptoms of…

Individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) are at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), including socialization problems. The PWS chromosome 15q11-13 maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD) subtype displays greater ASD symptoms than the paternal deletion (DEL) subtype. Since interpreting faces leads to successful socialization, we compared face…

In this population-based study, prevalence of depression was estimated and compared between children with and without developmental disability (DD). Twelve years of administrative data were linked to identify a cohort of children with DD living in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Children in the study cohort were matched with children without DD…