Children with an intellectual disability (ID) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to suffer from significantly more sleep problems, anxiety and challenging behaviour (CB) than typically developing children (TD), yet little is known about the relationship between these factors in the child ID/ASD population. The study aim was to examine these relationships. We hypothesised that there would be significant positive correlations between the three factors and that sleep problems and anxiety would predict a significant amount of the variance in levels of CB. Parental measures of sleep problems, anxiety and CB were completed by 187 parents of children with ID and/or ASD. Significant positive associations were found between the three factors. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that medication, sleep problems and anxiety accounted for 42% of the variance in CB, with a large effect size. These findings suggest that these relationships should be considered during clinical practice, particularly in the case of CB interventions where sleep problems and/or anxiety are also present.

This paper is an exploratory study in two parts into the adaptation of the NEO-PI-R for use with individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs). Study 1 was concerned with the simplification and reliability of questions to retain the meaning of the original. Eight participants completed both the original and the adapted versions, showing a very high consistency between versions. In Study 2, the adapted questionnaire was administered to an outpatient group of 40 people with ID. A rater version of each was also completed. Significant differences occurred between self and rater in the domains of Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Consistent and inconsistent responding between S and R forms were highlighted, emphasizing the value of the rater form in the NEO-PI-R.

The effect of pause length on ratings of communicative competence of social interactions of three individuals who used AAC was investigated. The AAC systems utilized in the study were whole-utterance text storage and retrieval devices. Pause length was manipulated by replacing natural pauses (average 16 s) in three recorded conversations of each individual with pauses averaging 2 s, 6 s or 10 s. Participants (n = 28) recorded their level of agreement with 14 statements relating to the communicative competence of the nine conversations, some with each of 2 s , 6 s 10 s, and natural pause lengths inserted. There was a highly significant linear trend, with the natural pause condition receiving the lowest ratings through to the 2 s pause condition with the highest ratings.

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