About Whom Are We Talking When We Use Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities?

Importance: Communicating clearly about who is included in a population group is a critical element to effective dissemination and knowledge transfer. This narrative review highlights the inconsistency as it relates to communicating about individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and developmental disability (DD).

Observations: There is enormous variability in the use of definitions and abbreviations in the field of intellectual disability and developmental disabilities.

Preliminary Reliability and Validity of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report French Translation.

There is a strong and growing focus on self-determination in French-speaking countries, and this pilot study reports the technical adequacy of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report (SDI:SR) French Translation. Data were collected with 471 French-speaking youth with and without disabilities in Canada (Quebec), Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Key findings showed it was feasible to use 20 (of 21) items to represent the self-determination construct in the French-speaking sample.

Self-Advocate and Family Member Experiences With Supported Decision Making.

Supported decision making (SDM) is a needed focus of policy and practice to enhance opportunities for people with disabilities to exercise self-determination as they are supported to make decisions about their life. This study used content analysis to analyze five focus groups comprised of 27 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and 16 family members to understand how people with IDD use supports for decision making and how families support decision making. People with IDD and family members described a range of strategies and supports they used for decision making, including engaging trusted supporters, accessing technology, and using early experiences to build decision-making skills.

Impact of Educational Placement on the Goal Attainment Outcomes of K-6 Students With Complex Needs Across Academic and Social-Behavioral-Communication Domains.

Students with complex support needs have intense and frequent support needs for learning and participating across multiple domains. Addressing those needs in a comprehensive manner is the purpose of special education, which is accomplished through instructional and Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals. Yet simply setting goals is insufficient; to facilitate positive student outcomes, there is an inherent expectation that students will meet those goals to achieve their potential.

Reflections on How What We Say, Do, and Acknowledge as Intellectual and Developmental Disability Researchers Matters.

This article highlights reflections by the author on the importance of considering what we say, do and acknowledge in intellectual and developmental disability research. The goal is to advance thinking that can lead to personal and collective change in our approaches to truly share power and elevate the expertise of people with lived experience with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the movement for equity, inclusion, and disability justice. Implications for inclusive research, policy, and practice are discussed as is the need to engage in personal reflection and build new partnerships for collective change.