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Highlights: [•] We reviewed 28 studies comparing different AAC systems for individuals with developmental disabilities. [•] Comparisons included non-electronic picture systems to speech generating devices, aided AAC to unaided, and AAC to vocal speech. [•] Consistent differences across all variables were not typical, but there were differences across individuals and outcomes. [•] When differences were present, learner characteristics such as motor imitation ability may have played a role. [•] In addition to effectiveness and efficiency, outcomes such as preference or maintenance should be considered based upon intervention goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study used a standard keyboard with a newly developed finger-pressing position detection program (FPPDP), i.e. a new software program, which turns a standard keyboard into a finger-pressing position detector, to evaluate whether two people with developmental disabilities would be able to actively perform fine motor activities to control their preferred environmental stimulation. An ABAB design was adopted in this study. The data showed that both participants’ target responses (i.e. fine motor activities) significantly increased (i.e. they performed more fine motor activities to activate the environmental stimulation) during the intervention phases. The practical and developmental implications of the findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Video modeling with other as model (VMO) is a more practical method for implementing video-based modeling techniques, such as video self-modeling, which requires significantly more editing. Despite this, identification of contextual factors such as participant characteristics and targeted outcomes that moderate the effectiveness of VMO has not previously been explored. The purpose of this study was to meta-analytically evaluate the evidence base of VMO with individuals with disabilities to determine if participant characteristics and targeted outcomes moderate the effectiveness of the intervention. Findings indicate that VMO is highly effective for participants with autism spectrum disorder (IRD=.83) and moderately effective for participants with developmental disabilities (IRD=.68). However, differential effects are indicated across levels of moderators for diagnoses and targeted outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Developmental disabilities are a heterogeneous group of chronic conditions that may result in substantial activity limitations. The type and number of limitations may vary by impairment characteristics. Economic and social constraints may impact activity limitations beyond those attributable to their impairment. Using the International Classification of Functioning (ICF), Disability, and Health conceptual framework, this study tests the hypothesis that activity limitations in young adulthood are not inevitable consequences of childhood impairment. The Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Follow-up Study of Young Adults, a cohort of young adults ages 21–25, is used to examine the relationship between childhood impairment and activity limitations in young adulthood. For young adults with isolated impairment, activity limitations are not probable outcomes. This situation is not the case for those with severe intellectual disability and/or multiple impairments. The type and extent of activity limitations vary by impairment characteristics. With the goal of improving and preventing activity limitations in young adults with various types and severities of childhood impairment, additional research is needed to further identify areas for secondary and tertiary prevention of the consequences of childhood impairment. The conceptual framework of the ICF provides a useful tool for testing hypotheses to pinpoint areas of intervention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Charlop, Burgio, Iwata, and Ivancic [J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 21 (1988) 89] demonstrated that varied punishment procedures produced greater or more consistent reductions of problem behavior than a constant punishment procedure. More recently, Fisher and colleagues [Res. Dev. Disabil. 15 (1994) 133; J. Appl. Behav. Anal. 27 (1994) 447] developed a systematic methodology for predicting the efficacy of various punishment procedures. Their procedure identified reinforcers and punishers (termed “empirically derived consequences” or EDC) that, when used in combination, reduced the destructive behavior of individuals with developmental disabilities who displayed automatically maintained destructive behavior. The current investigation combines these two lines of research by comparing the effects of constant versus varied punishers on the self-injury of two individuals with developmental disabilities. The punishing stimuli were selected via the procedures described by Fisher et al. and were predicted to be at varying levels of effectiveness. The varied presentation of punishers resulted in enhanced suppressive effects over the constant presentation of a punisher for one of two individuals, but only in comparison to a single stimulus predicted to be minimally effective. Even then, the differences were small. These results suggest that the additive effects of varied punishment are negligible if clinicians use stimuli predicted to be effective and are discussed in terms of the conditions under which stimulus variation could potentially enhance the effects of punishers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]