Background: There are a growing number of people with learning disabilities and autism who access personal budgets in the form of direct payments in England. Although they are often involved in decisions about their support, personal budgets are usually managed by someone else, typically a parent. This study examined the experiences of carers who…

Introduction: Adults with complex needs and severe learning disability present as a serious management problem within the community. Restrictive interventions are often used to manage adults with these issues, even though best practice recommends the use of positive behaviour support. Positive behaviour support involves functional analysis, but it…

Background: Social and communication impairments are a core diagnostic feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and can act as a barrier to developing relationships. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2016) guidelines recommend group social skills interventions as the first-line treatment to help adults with ASD improve their…

Background: Adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism are often excluded from participating in health and healthcare research. Understanding study information, which is an important aspect of demonstrating capacity to give informed consent, can be a particular challenge. This study surveyed clinical researchers to discover: (i) their…

This article draws on a doctoral study carried out across seven counties in England which focused on twelve parents' experiences of carrying out the role of a "suitable person" ("SP") by managing a direct payment for an adult child (living in her/his own home) who has severe learning disabilities, autism and very complex…

Adult siblings of people with autism and a learning disability have hitherto been largely overlooked by research, policy and practice in the UK. As part of a qualitative study focussing on adult siblings, we met twelve people with autism plus severe learning disability with their brother or sister. Individually tailored resources were used to make…

Most research into the effectiveness of Social Stories has focused on children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This study examines the use of Social Stories with four adults with learning disabilities and social communication impairments characteristic of ASD. This study employed an N = 1 multiple-baseline, across-participant, AB design with…

This article describes a project about using contact work with people with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. People with learning disabilities and additional autistic spectrum disorder are at risk of becoming socially isolated because of their difficulties in interacting with others. Contact work is a form of Pre-Therapy, which…

This article examines the case of a male with Down syndrome who has been referred to a clinical psychology service due to challenging behaviors. It provides a case history and rationale for the assessment of autism, and describes the positive effects of an intervention for increasing staff awareness of autism. (Contains references.) (CR)

It is argued that challenging behavior can be better understood if a correlational analysis (looking for correlations between behavior occurrence and other variables) is used in addition to functional analysis. A case example is provided of a man whose aggressive outbursts were negatively correlated with trips out of his unit. (Contains…