Intellectual and Neuro-Developmental Disabilities

Intellectual disability (ID) is the term now used internationally for people that the UK refers to as learning disabled and the US mentally retarded . Our staff have been deeply involved with the people since 1985. Recently, our research focus has expanded to include adults with neuro-developmental conditions such as Asperger’s syndrome / high-functioning autism.

Our research:

is service-facing
explores new technologies that can be harnessed to improve life and learning
examines the impact of policy and practice on the lives of people with ID, parents/carers and staff, and
identifies tensions between the ideas driving policy and actual practice that make it difficult for staff and carers to solve problems.

Themes

Assistive technology in ID

This long-term programme of research asks: How can technologies such as virtual reality be harnessed for the benefit of people who have ID?

Computers have the advantage of being infinitely patient. People can play a game as many times as they wish without the computer getting ‘bored’. Professor Standen’s research in this field examined how people with the most severe ID can interact with computers, and the way that computer games and computer teaching can become useful educational tools.

This research is starting to explore the potential for email to become another tool of communication this group can use.

Leaving school

For young people with intellectual disabilities and their families, the point in the life-cycle when they move from child to adult services has become known as the transition.

Other possible points of psychological transition, such as going to school or leaving home, pale into insignificance because of the particular challenges presented by leaving children’s services.

The significance of this transition was recognised in the government’s 2001 White Paper, Valuing People, which made continuity of care and support one of 11 key objectives for improving ID services.

Yet despite many initiatives intended to improve this transition in the UK and abroad, families continue to identify it as a significant point of stress.

This programme of research has explored what makes this transition such a difficult period, and for whom. By focussing on tensions resulting from unquestioned and long-standing service goals, this programme of research into transition reveals problems at the heart of current policy and practice.

Better understanding of adults with Autism/Asperger’s

Research interest in autism and Asperger’s has focussed mainly on the way people with autism think, a field of research often called ‘theory of mind’.

By contrast our research focuses on the feelings and experiences of people with autism. This started with an examination of sources of anxiety and stress.

The second study was Dr Benford’s doctoral research which explored the ways in which people with Asperger syndrome may capitalise on the serendipitous benefits of the internet to address their communication needs and break down some of the social barriers which permeate their lives.

Third was Raven & Clegg’s current examination of adult lifestyles.

Finally, Dr Benford is currently carrying out an external evaluation of a new service developed in Nottingham for adults who have Asperger’s syndrome.

Doctoral Research Projects

More Information

Research Staff

School of Community Health Sciences

The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0) 115 823 0208
fax: +44 (0) 115 823 0214
email: chs-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk