ABSTRACT

Neurologic insults in infancy can have significant long-term effects on developmental processes including attention and learning; however, the heterogeneity of diagnoses and treatments in this population often lead to exclusion from interventional trials to improve outcomes. This study sought to determine whether hospitalized infants with neural insults have the capacity to attend to and engage in an intervention leveraging recorded mother's voice contingent on non-nutritive suck (NNS). Eighty-four hospitalized infants with neural insult were randomized to receive 20 sessions of intervention (recorded mother's voice contingent on NNS) or control (passive exposure to recorded mother's voice). Pause time between suck bursts was 29% lower for infants receiving contingent mother's voice compared to passive exposure (p < 0.001). Hospitalized infants with evidence of neural insult have the capacity to engage in active interventions leveraging recorded mother's voice and demonstrate greater attention during active versus passive presentation of stimuli.

Clinical Trial Registration: NCT03230032.

ABSTRACT

Over time, sexuality has become a crucial aspect in people's lives, regardless of physical, intellectual or social conditions, ranging from sex and sexually transmitted diseases to gender identity and sexual orientation. The aim of this study was to carry out a review of the scientific literature on sexual orientation in people with intellectual disabilities from the Education and Health Sciences and to analyse how sex education is addressed in this group. To this end, a systematic review of research on sexual orientation in people with intellectual disabilities was carried out. The results obtained reveal that there is hardly any scientific corpus on this subject, so emphasis should be placed on the attitudes towards LGTBIQA+ people with intellectual disabilities, as well as on the training and understanding of the different sexual orientations they may have. It is essential to face the obstacles, stigmas and prejudices established in society to normalise the sexual needs of these people, improving, consequently, their quality of life.

Abstract

In item difficulty modeling (IDM), item parameters are predicted from the items' linguistic features, aiming to ultimately render item calibration redundant. Current IDM applications, however, commonly do not yield the required prediction accuracy. To immediately exploit even somewhat inaccurate IDM predictions, we blend IDM with established Bayesian estimation techniques. We propose a two-step approach where (1) IDM predictions are obtained and (2) employed to construct informative prior distributions. We evaluate the approach in a case study on small-sample calibration of the 3PL in a high-stakes test. First, concerning implementation, we find computationally efficient penalized maximum likelihood estimation to be comparable to the best-performing MCMC-based approach. Second, we investigate sample size reductions achievable with state-of-the-art IDM predictions, finding negligible gains compared to merely considering the historical distribution of parameters. Third, we evaluate the prediction accuracy required for a targeted sample size reduction by gradually increasing simulated IDM prediction accuracies. We find that required accuracies can counterbalance each other, allowing calibration sample size to be reduced when either high-quality item difficulty predictions or good predictions of item discriminations and pseudo-guessing parameters are available. We argue that these evaluations provide new, portable IDM benchmarks quantifying performance in terms of achievable sample size reductions.

ABSTRACT

Background

The impact of having a disabled brother or sister on siblings' psychological well-being and sibling relationships has been the subject of several research studies. However, research which focuses on the relationship between siblings and their autistic brother or sister with an intellectual disability and complex care needs is rare. We explored siblings' views and experiences of their sibling relationship with their autistic brother or sister with complex care needs.

Method

Eleven children and early adolescents (4 male/7 female) between the ages of 8 and 14 years took part in semi-structured interviews with questions focussing on their relationship with their autistic brother or sister who had complex care needs. Reflexive thematic analysis was used as a guide to analyse the data.

Results

Four themes are presented: positive interactions bring joy, sibling conflict is driven by verbal interactions, behaviours may have different meanings for the sibling, perceptions of change in the sibling relationship.

Conclusions

The siblings of autistic brothers and sisters with an intellectual disability and complex care needs described warmth and positivity. Siblings of autistic children, who have complex care needs, deeply valued their interactions with their brother or sister despite reciprocity being on their terms. When autistic brothers and sisters had some functional spoken language, this often changed the context for the siblings relationship; perhaps leading to an increased chance of conflict or perceived negative experiences. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual meaning of these sibling relationships.

ABSTRACT

Background

The current literature has established that prejudice in child protection cases with parents with intellectual disabilities continues to persist. However, complexities of these cases are not well-understood from the perspective of child protection workers. This study aimed to identify the needs of child protection workers and their views on factors that influence supports for parents with intellectual disabilities.

Method

This qualitative study conducted semistructured interviews with child protection workers who have worked directly with parents with intellectual disabilities across five child protective agencies in three regions in Ontario, Canada (n = 11).

Results

Three major themes emerged after content analysis of interviews: (1) training and support needs of child protection workers; (2) key sources of support for parents; and (3) intersecting factors impacting decision-making.

Conclusion

Social service agencies continue to be fragmented and better coordination across agencies is needed to meet the cross-sectoral needs of parents with intellectual disabilities.

ABSTRACT

Background

Population studies confirm mothers with intellectual disability have poorer antenatal outcomes than other mothers but less is known about any differences in sociodemographic characteristics between these groups.

Method

A systematic review of population-level studies on parents with intellectual disability was undertaken from January to August 2023. Seven electronic databases and references from two literature reviews were examined and 27 studies met inclusion criteria for the review.

Results

All studies reported on mothers and only one on fathers. Maternal age and socioeconomic status were most frequently reported; age in 26 studies and socioeconomic status in 23 studies. Most studies found mothers with intellectual disability were significantly younger (73%) and more disadvantaged (83%) than their peers.

Conclusions

Maternal intellectual disability co-occurs with established parenting risk factors in the general population. Social welfare programs must become disability-inclusive and population datasets should routinely include disability items. A knowledge gap remains in relation to fathers with intellectual disability.