In Western countries the need to assess the adaptive behaviour of a wide range of individuals within the framework of research and policy-making has increased in recent years. To meet this need a screener version of the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales (VABS) was developed in The Netherlands. This screener is a questionnaire to be filled out by primary care-givers. Using a limited number of items the instrument covers the four domains of adaptive behaviour portrayed in the original Expanded Version of the VABS. In this article the psychometric characteristics of this screener are determined in a non-clinical population of children from 0 to 12 years using a sample of 984 children. Available data support the reliability and validity of the screener. Internal consistency of the domains and test-retest reliability are high: 0.90 or more. High intra-class correlations between scores of mothers and fathers show that inter-rater agreement is also satisfactory. Furthermore the domain scores contribute evenly to the composite score. The associations with chronological age/calendar age are strong. Correlations range between 0.80 and 0.95, implying that an increase in age linearly is related to an increase in adaptive behaviour. Newly born children obtain virtually no scores, and increase of scores levels off at different ages near the end of the intended age range. The results indicate that the screener is a promising research instrument to assess the adaptive behaviour of children by means of a short questionnaire filled out by their primary care-givers.

Down children seem to acquire skills in a similar sequence and according to a similar trajectory. Development of adaptive skills varies greatly between participants with Down syndrome. For that reason, cohort studies on the development of individuals with Down syndrome over a prolonged period of time are needed.

This study investigates the parental perception of stress related to the upbringing of children with CHARGE syndrome and its association with behavioral and physical child characteristics. Parents of 22 children completed the Nijmegen Parenting Stress Index-Short, Developmental Behavior Checklist, and Dutch Vineland Screener 0-12 and reported their child’s problems with hearing, vision and ability to speak. Parenting stress was high in 59% of the subjects. Behavioral problems on the depression, autism, self-absorbed and disruptive behavior scales correlated positively with parenting stress. A non-significant trend was found, namely higher stress among the parents of non-speaking children. No associations were found with other child characteristics, i.e. level of adaptive functioning and intellectual disability, auditory and visual problems, deafblindness, gender, and age. Raising a child with CHARGE syndrome is stressful; professional support is therefore essential for this population. More research into other possible influencing characteristics is needed to improve family-oriented interventions. Since CHARGE is a rare syndrome, closer international collaboration is needed, not only to expand the group of study subjects to increase statistical power, but also to harmonize research designs and measurement methods to improve the validity, the reliability, and the generalization of the findings.

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Background Autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability (ID) are linked to atypical sensory processing, but consensus lacks on the impact of their co-occurrence. We studied the impact of the presence of ID in autistic individuals on (1) sensory processing and (2) the relation between sensory processing and behavioral outcomes. Methods A systematic review was performed on English-language peer-reviewed studies. Results Eleven papers were included. Papers based on overall and sensory subscales reported no impact of the presence of ID. Papers based on subtypes reported hyporesponsiveness and sensory seeking related to the presence of ID; hyporesponsiveness showed the poorest behavioral outcomes. Conclusions Findings regarding the impact of the presence of ID are contradictory. More research regarding sensory subtypes is needed to investigate the needs of autistic individuals with ID.