Parents of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often report heightened levels of parental distress. An increasing amount of attention is being directed to parental mental health and addressing the well-being of the entire family system. In order to best serve families raising children with ASDs, the present study sought to better understand the relation between social support, various risk factors, and caregiver depression. Data were collected from 60 families with children 2—7 years with ASDs through the use of extensive, in-home interviews with primary caregivers. Mothers reported the availability and helpfulness of both formal and informal supports. Similar to previous research, mothers also reported elevated levels of depression. In the present sample, more than half of mothers reported depressive symptoms at or above the cut-off for mild depressive symptomatology. Both child-related variables (autism symptomatology, atypical behavior) and service-related variables (satisfaction with the education eligibility process, satisfaction with sources of information about ASDs) were predictive of maternal depression. Social support and maternal depression were not related.

This mixed methods study focused on how parents and primary caregivers perceive their family quality of life (FQOL) while a family member with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) transitions from adolescence to adulthood. A modified version of the Family Quality of Life Survey-2006 Short Version: Main caregivers of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I. Brown et al., 2006) queried families’ perceptions and experience of their greatest strengths and supports, as well as their greatest needs and challenges in maintaining their family quality of life through this period of transition. In-depth individual interviews were conducted to further investigate the survey results and showed that participants struggled with a lack of support from others who did not share the experience of having an IDD family member while at the same time, they noted the high value they attribute to the support they receive from other families within the disability community who also have family members with IDD. Participants also noted the lack of support they receive from disability services and expressed the importance of finding opportunities for fulfilling their own needs, as well as the needs of other family members. These opportunities are reported as being essential to enhancing a variety of life domains, suggesting the need for more support in areas of family centred development. The implications drawn from these findings contribute to the discussion of changing how we view the domain support from others and how we can provide families with more opportunities to pursue areas of their own interest either individually or as a family unit in order to improve and enhance their FQOL as their family member with IDD transitions into adulthood. / Graduate / 2018-12-01

Bruxism, the gnashing or grinding of one’s teeth, is a significant dental concern that can lead to severe damage of the tooth and gum structures and has been suggested to occur at higher rates in the developmentally disabled population. Very little research has been conducted in this area and of those articles, none of which utilized function based treatments nor conducted functional analyses. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of a function based stimulation intervention on audible diurnal bruxism with two adolescent boys diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Functional analyses were conducted for both participants and revealed that bruxism was exhibited across all conditions and occurred highest in the alone condition, suggesting that the behavior was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Based on these findings, a function based stimulation treatment was developed to examine the effects of auditory and tactile stimuli on bruxism relative to conditions in which no stimuli were available. Results indicated that the function based stimulation intervention produced substantial decreases in bruxism for both participants. A post stimulation evaluation further supported these findings, showing the occurrence of bruxism remained at low levels following the removal of the stimulus, suggesting the application of the stimulation acted as an abolishing operation for bruxism.

Guided by feminist social constructionism, intersectionality and the social construction of disability, this thesis investigates the ways that sexual assault support workers and disability support workers in a medium-sized Ontario city construct women survivors of sexual assault who have a developmental disability, and how their service delivery reflects these constructions. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with sexual assault support workers and disability support workers. Results suggest that these workers construct their service users in multiple, sometimes conflicting, ways, resisting and reproducing several ableist and sexist social constructions. Furthermore, sexual assault support workers and disability support workers often construct their service users in opposing ways. This reveals a divide between the two types of organizations. Bridging this gap may have the potential to improve services for women survivors of sexual assault who have developmental disabilities.

When teaching discriminations, many researchers and practitioners recommend presenting multiple examples of both the correct and incorrect stimuli. To test this suggestion, we compared two procedures for presenting multiple examples. In one, multiple examples across trials (ME, Across), one correct (S+) and one incorrect (S-) stimulus were presented each trial; examples then changed across trials. In another procedure, multiple examples within trials (ME, Within), three stimuli (either 2 S+'s and 1 S-, or 1 S+ and 2 S-'s) were presented each trial; examples again changed across trials. Two experiments were conducted to test these procedures. The first procedure used a non-fading program to teach discrimination; the second used a fading procedure. In the first experiment, we taught 10 persons to identify words under these two procedures. The former procedure was superior in acquisition; the latter procedure, however, was better under generalization for most participants. In the second experiment, we presented the two procedures within a fading paradigm. The results replicated those in Experiment 1: ME, Across was better for acquisition, but ME, Within was better for generalization. Results were discussed and follow-up studies suggested.

The purpose of this article was to review the literature about families of adult children with developmental disabilities, the impact of culture on access to health care services, and community-based health care services for adults with developmental disabilities to answer the following questions: (1) How do parents of adult children with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities describe their caregiving experiences?, (2) What are frequently identified unmet service needs by the parents/families?, (3) Does the family's culture or ethnic background influence how they view their caregiving experiences?, and (4) What are the unique challenges facing families when attempting to access health care services? Currently little information exists about the needs of parents and other family members who live with adults with developmental disabilities. Longitudinal studies and studies to assess the influence of culture on care giving are especially needed. Therapists need to use approaches that will empower children and their families so they can better meet their current challenges and provide a foundation for the skills they will need to meet future challenges as adults.

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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disability defined by deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. Over the last few decades, the global prevalence of autism has increased by twentyfold to thirtyfold. In the United States, the prevalence of ASD has increased rapidly with one out of every fifty-nine children (1.7%) diagnosed with the condition. With the increasing prevalence of ASD, the financial cost has been estimated to exceed those of Diabetes and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by 2025. Furthermore, ASD has been found to be about 4-5 times more prevalent in males, compared to females, and there has been a noted increase in the prevalence of congenital abnormalities in patients with ASD. Objective: As part of an ongoing multi-year retrospective chart review of the patients seen at the Genetics Clinic for suspected or confirmed cases of ASD, we sought to identify the demographic characteristics of these patients and to see how they compare with documented studies. Methods: The overall study is an ongoing multi-year, retrospective chart review of patients seen at the ETSU Medical Genetics Clinic, with features suggestive of ASD. For this preliminary study, we extracted data from the Electronic health record (Allscripts) for 80 patients (n=80), on the gender, term status at birth (term defined as gestational age at delivery of 37 weeks or more, preterm defined as those delivered at less than 37 weeks), twin status, presence of congenital abnormalities, and the state of residence. We entered all the extracted data into REDCap and carried out a descriptive analysis of the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: It was found that of the eighty patients, eighteen (22.5%) were females while sixty-two (77.5%) were males, (male to female ratio of 3.4 to 1). Fifty-nine patients (73.8%) were born at term, eighteen (22.5%) born preterm and three (3.8%) with unknown term status. Seventy-seven patients (96.3%) were twins and three (3.8%) were not. Thirty patients (37.5%) had no congenital abnormalities at birth while fifty patients (62.5%) had at least one congenital abnormality at birth. Sixty-one patients (76.3%) were from Tennessee while nineteen (23.8%) were from Virginia. Conclusions: This preliminary finding revealed an increased proportion of males compared to females, as well as an increased proportion of the population with congenital abnormalities compared to those without such abnormality. These findings agree with documented data from previous studies on ASD. In our future analysis, we would examine the rate of diagnosis of ASD in the clinic, the type of mutation and the genes involved and identify any trend for specific genes, and/or specific mutation.