Developmental Disabilities: Article Analysis

Although I graduate with my bachelors in November I am still undecided with what I want to do exactly. I know that I would prefer to work with young children. With having siblings born with rare genetic disorders that have affected every aspect of their lives I do find myself leaning toward developmental disabilities. Developmental disability is a group of common chronic conditions which result from physical or mental impairment, causing difficulties in self-help, mobility, and learning. For one to become a specialist in this area, they must possess a wide range of skills. Therefore, this area requires specific skills and experimental background in order to provide better services to people living with developmental disabilities.

During the 1950s, people who had a disability had two options of housing which included living with their families or living in an institution. However, families did not receive much support since most public welfare services were used towards institutional care, such as mental hospitals and orphanages. Throughout the 1960s there were movements to deinstitutionalize, which at that time basically led to smaller institutions. The 1970s allowed for even smaller community-based residential services that were typically designed for not more than 12 people that were similar in terms of age, independence, or ability. Even though different funding was available, many standards were violated in most of the institutions. Throughout the 70s there were movements to close state institutions and provide more community residential services as well as family support. During the 1980s groundwork for families was laid to expand their control of the nature of the support they received and more options were available to help out with living outside an institution. People with developmental disabilities began to gain increased support to having homes of their own during the 1990s and funded had dramatically increased to over $735 for family support programs in 1998. In 2001 the federal government began a new freedom initiative to “remove barriers to community living for people of all ages with disabilities and long-term illness.” In 2011 the decision that the isolation of people with

The article “introducing disability Studies” by Ronald J. Berger was an eye opener in uncovering the past history of negative stigma associated with having a disability. Through history people have felt the need to stare at people with disabilities or to turn away in fear of maybe contracting the “disease”. This negative attitude was positively reinforced by ordinances such as the Chicago “ugly law” in which a person with physical deformities would have to pay a fine for simply being too “disgusting” looking to other citizens. This law was in place from 1880 to 1973, which is pretty recent in history. However there are positive glimpse in history when it came to uncovering and defining disabilities. Men like Leo Kanner and Asperger have dedicated

     When a child doesn’t seem to be learning, some teachers and parents in his/her life might criticize the child and think of them as stupid, or maybe just too lazy to want to learn. What they don’t realize is that the child might have a learning disability. But how are these children being helped? There are many programs, special schools and facilities, home teaching methods and many other ways in which children with Learning Disabilities are being helped.

Analyzed below are the two journal articles about special education assessments entitled, Predictors of Assessment Accommodations Use for Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing from the Journal of Educational Research & Policy Studies (Cawthon & WurtzBest, 2010) and A Methodology for Assessing the Functions of Emerging Speech in Children with Developmental Disabilities from the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis (Parten, et al, 2005). The analysis revolves around the following areas: nature of research, summary, critique, personnel, future practice, and future research.

As an advocate for the developmental disabled in my current role in my community, I work hard at educating the mainstream community as well as my own team and staff about the mistruths about the DD community. Who these amazing clients are. What they bring to the community. What their strengths are and what their needs may be. When one of my clients has a behavior in the group community, their employment, or home setting or the general community, I work with my clients first on deescalating the unwanted behavior then educating them on how they can work on not reaching that point. How we can create a positive behavior instead. This often can include those in the setting that the behavior occurred. No matter what the situation, the keys to helping

The article, “Volunteerism among Homeless Persons with Developmental Disabilities,” by Larry G. Morton II and Giovanina Gardiner conducted the study in at George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The researchers discuss about the adults hardships and struggles these individuals are exposed to on a daily basis. In addition, this vulnerable population is excluded from mainstream society. The authors that conducted this study did a comparison on homeless individuals who were diagnosis with a developmental delay to determine if there is a correlation between volunteerism and community integration. Furthermore, the intent of this article is “to take Bowgett’s study a step further by reporting the level of volunteerism in an urban sample of homeless persons with developmental disabilities. The research question is does volunteerism suggest healthy community integration among this ample of homeless persons with developmental disabilities?” ( (Gardiner, Morton, & Cunningham-Williams, 2010, p. 2).

4. What part do "thinking skills" play in the assessment of a baby's development process and the conclusion that the baby is developmentally delayed?

Disabilities were viewed in many different ways by different societies and even differently by different families within a society. After WWII the view of different types of people changed. Views on people with disabilities changed because of the number of veterans who returned with physical and mental disabilities and because the number of people with disabilities who were employed for the first time in the war effort. Another reason that people with disabilities were viewed differently was because President Roosevelt was unable to walk because of polio. President Kennedy had a sister that had an intellectual disability. So people began to view people with disabilities differently. My family also viewed disabilities differently than most families. My brother, Sammy, who was born in 1955 had Down’s syndrome. My grandmother had a sister named “Bam” that had an intellectual disability. This caused our family to view intellectual

Living with disabilities on a daily basis can be more difficult then some realize. Many people who are born with developmental disabilities start their education and therapy at a very young age and there are also those people who have been diagnosed with a disability sometime during their lifetime. But what is there for them to do once they have graduated from high school or are told they are too old to continue in a regular school or they are simply told they aren’t accepted in the “normal” community? In all reality there really

The article Volunteerism Among Homeless Persons with Developmental Disabilities is written by Larry Morton II, MSW, MA, Renee M. Cunningham-Williams, and Giovanina Gardiner, MSW. Morton et al. (2010), researched the volunteerism pattern of homeless people using the strengths based perspective. (p. 2). The study was conducted in St. Louis, MO, where they “hypothesized that volunteerism would be associated with indicators of healthy community integration” (pp. 1-3). Clary, Ridge, Stukas, Snyder, Copeland, Haugen, and Miene(1998) wrote “Volunteering may offer opportunities to be with one's friends or to engage in an activity viewed favorably by important others (p. 1518). The sample size included 60 participants. Participants were approached

"Mental Retardation"was a medical diagnosis used to describe people with "Intellectual Disability" Until Congress voted to change it on September 3 of 2013 to the above mentioned "intellectual Disability." "The R Slur" has become a synonym for stupid as well as other negative connotations. Phrase include "That's so retarded" "You're such a retard."Many people with an Intellectual Disability or family members of someone with I an Intellectual Disability have expressed discomfort at this. Describing it as "demeaning and insulting." Special Olympic Messenger, John Franklin Stephans argued in an article he wrote about "The R Slur." "I get the irony that only dumb and shallow people are using a term that mean dumb and shallow. The problem is,

This article discusses whether or not special education teachers, as well as general education teachers, are prepared to teach students with autism. According to the article, autism is ranks at the sixth most commonly classified disability in the United States. There is a very wide spectrum for autism which include disorders like Asperger’s and pervasive developmental disorders not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). 1 out of 150 American children will be born with autism (Autism Society of America, NDb).

This article relates to developmental psychology in a few different ways. The first way is that it is associated with neurology. When it talks about how we focus more on the negatives. What if we were raised(developed) as children to have a different mind set. Think about what the world would be like if the whole world focused more on positives than negatives.

Behavioral principles have long been employed to achieve educational progress with children who have intellectual disabilities (Drew & Hardman, 2007). An issue of substantial concern is behaviors that may be self-injurious or dangerous to those surrounding the individual. In order to prevent occurrences of inappropriate behavior, family members and the educational staff must put effective interventions into place. These behavior procedures include the use of punishment and aversive consequences, and are sometimes put forth by professionals to change inappropriate behavior (Drew & Hardman, 2007). However, controversy exists over the social and ethical issues involved with the implementation of aversive procedures, especially when working with young children.