Suchergebnisse

Individuals with severe disabilities and their families can engage in person-centered and family-centered planning for aging using a life course view. Viewing aging within the context of the family and disability is essential because many people with severe disabilities depend on their families for supports in daily living, social relationships, and for activities within communities. Since eligibility-based supports are often limited, parents and other family members play large roles both financially and socially in helping their family member move through the life course into active and healthy aging. Charting the LifeCourse is a framework that both people with disabilities and their families can use to achieve desired life outcomes over time. Issues that impact active and healthy aging for people with disabilities include the aging of caregivers, death of a caregiver, limited resources for supporting physical and health concerns, staying active in the community following retirement, and maintaining social emotional connections.

Previous research has suggested differences in the locus of control (LOC) orientations of students with intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and no disabilities, although this research has been characterized by methodological limitations. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of LOC orientations in students with intellectual disability, learning disabilities, and no disabilities using an accelerated design and a curve-of-factors modeling framework. Participants were 1,344 children and young people between the ages of 8 and 18 years who completed two measures of LOC orientations. Students with intellectual disability, at 8 years, tend to be more externally oriented than their peers with learning disabilities and no disabilities, and from 8 to 20 years, they do not significantly increase or decrease in their perceptions of their ability to exert control over their lives. Students with learning disabilities and no disabilities tend to develop more positive orientations as they age; however, this similar pattern of change was offset by initial differences in level (i.e., intercept values). The findings suggest the critical need for continued attention to developing and implementing strategies that focus on promoting the development of adaptive perceptions of control in students with disabilities, particularly students with more severe disabilities.

Research has suggested that adding cognitive support technologies to the transition planning process
enhances student self-determination above and beyond traditional, book or paper-based self-determination
curricular materials. However, limited research has examined how teachers perceive the impact of cognitive
support technologies on student capacity and opportunity for self-determination. The present study
used multivariate analysis of covariance to examine teacher perceptions of student capacity and opportunity
for self-determination over time based on group random assignment to a self-determination curricula
alone group or a self-determination curricula plus cognitive support technology group. The impact of disability
label (learning disability vs. intellectual disability) on educator perceptions was also examined. Findings
suggest a complex pattern of differences over time; there was a multivariate effect for the interaction of
time, disability, and technology access, but when decomposing these differences at the univariate level, the
primary differences were in educator ratings of capacity, not opportunity. Differences based on disability
label were also found, with educators rating students with intellectual disability significantly lower in their
capacity for self-determination, but not opportunity. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.