This handbook is the first comprehensive text on positive psychology and disability. Emphasizing paradigmatic changes in understanding disability, the text covers traditional disciplines in positive psychology; and applications of positive psychology to domains like education or work.

This handbook examines the wide-ranging applications of positive psychology in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. It discusses the change in perceptions of disability and the shifting use of traditional deficit-based treatments. It presents evidence-based approaches and strategies that promote individuals’ strengths and capacities and as well as provide supports and services to enhance quality of life. Chapters address medical and psychological aspects in intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as mindfulness, motivation, physical well-being, and self-regulation. The book also discusses uses of assessment practices in evaluating interventions and client outcomes. In addition, it explores ways practitioners, with positive psychology, can focus on what a person is capable of achieving, thereby leading to more effective approaches to care and treatment. Topics featured in the Handbook include: Translating the quality of life concept into practice. The Casual Agency Theory and its implications for understanding self-determination. The Mindfulness-Based Individualized Support Plan (MBISP) and its use in providing support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The unique role that friendship plays to people’s lives and social well-being. Supported Decision-Making (SDM) as an alternative to guardianship. A positive psychology approach to aging and retirement. The Handbook of Positive Psychology in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians and related professionals in clinical child and school psychology, behavioral therapy, social work, applied behavioral analysis, recreational therapy, occupational therapy, education, speech and language pathology, psychiatry, clinical medicine, and nursing.

The Handbook of Research-Based Practices for Educating Students with Intellectual Disability provides an integrated, transdisciplinary overview of research-based practices for teaching students with intellectual disability. This comprehensive volume emphasizes education across life stages, from early intervention in schools through the transition to adulthood, and highlights major educational and support needs of children and youth with intellectual disability. The implications of history, recent research, and existing information are positioned to systematically advance new practices and explore promising possibilities in the field. Driven by the collaboration of accomplished, nationally recognized professionals of varied approaches and philosophies, the book emphasizes practices that have been shown to be effective through multiple methodologies, so as to help readers select interventions based on the evidence of their effectiveness.

Michael Wehmeyer, a leading scholar with over four decades of experience as a teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and advocate, provides a cogent but accessible account of the evolution of special education. Offering a compelling vision of where the field should be headed in the next decade, he notes how the digital revolution has made it possible for all learners to gain access to content and instruction. This text focuses on the need to consider how young people with (and without) disabilities learn and the importance of creating personalizable education as strengths-based approaches to disability move education away from diagnosis and remediation to schoolwide instruction for all students. This book is not written as a criticism of traditional special education models, but instead examines the big ideas for going beyond special education that can improve outcomes for learners with disabilities and prepare them for the 21st-century world. “If you are part of the field, you must choose whether to look backward or forward. This book includes the tools you need for the latter.” —Sue Swenson, president, Inclusion International “Dr. Wehmeyer masterfully articulates the flaws in our current approach and offers a roadmap to a more promising future for our nation’s children.” —Melody Bruce Musgrove, The University of Mississippi

Neurodiversity: From Phenomenology to Neurobiology and Enhancing Technologies addresses the totality of neurodiversity through positive explorations of "invisible diversities"--from ADHD and savantism to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and dyslexia. Edited by the director of the Stanford Neurodiversity Project, the book emphasizes strengths-based approaches to clinical practice and investigates interventions to improve the lives of neurodiverse individuals. Following a compelling foreword by Temple Grandin, the book proceeds to address neurodiversity in four parts: first, an introduction that presents neurodiversity's differences in brain function and behavior as part of the normal variation of the human population; second, presentation of the strengths-based model of neurodiversity (SBMN), including positive psychology, neurobiology, and SBMN in savantism, autism, ADHD, and dyslexia; third, a discussion of neurodiverse individuals in the real world, including higher education and employment; and finally, a review of technologies that enhance our abilities to maximize the potential of neurodiversity, including inclusive design and assessment tools that provide support for neurodiverse young adults seeking meaningful employment. Neurodiversity: From Phenomenology to Neurobiology and Enhancing Technologies provides clinicians, educators, and other professionals with cutting-edge, practical, and positive information to understand and assist their patients, students, and other neurodiverse individuals to operate from a position of strength.

International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities, Volume 60 highlights new advances in the field, with this new volume presenting interesting chapters written by an international board of authors, including updates on School-based Executive Function Interventions Reduce Caregiver Strain, Emergence of Fine Motor Skills in Down Syndrome, Capturing Positive Psychology in People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Systematic Review of Constructs and Measures, Navigating with Blurry Maps: School Principals and Special Education Legal Knowledge, Statistical Techniques for Dealing with Small Samples in IDD Research, and more. - Provides the authority and expertise of leading contributors from an international board of authors - Presents the latest release in the International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities series

"Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a comprehensive framework for the study of human motivation, personality development and wellness as evidenced by the breadth and variety of chapters in this handbook. In introducing this collection, we review the basic assumptions, philosophy of science, methods, and mission of SDT. We also provide a brief history of SDT, linking various developments within the theory to the contributions found in this volume. Finally, we attempt to place SDT within the landscape of past and contemporary theoretical psychology, as well as modern historical and cultural developments, in part explaining the continued growth of SDT's basic research and real-world applications"--

This book examines the science and practice of character strengths as the backbone for understanding, studying, and applying positive interventions across a wide range of disabilities. It explores character strengths as positive personality qualities most central to an individual’s identity that create positive outcomes for building well-being and managing adversities and contribute to the collective good. The book recognizes disability as a part of the human experience that can emerge for anyone and the necessity for examining and applying strengths-based approaches. It explores what is known about character strengths and various disabilities from a science and practice perspective. The book reviews research on the assessment, correlations, concepts, populations, and applications of character strengths across disabilities. It disseminates disparate research and little-known best practices and hypothetical practices, along with multiple case examples, in the effort to advance the science and practice, bring a balanced approach to the field, and contribute to human flourishing. Key topics of coverage include: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and character strengths. Intellectual and physical disabilities, medical illness and character strengths. Mental and emotional disorders (e.g., trauma) and character strengths. Character strengths and disability across special issues including justice, inclusion, dual-diagnosis, and spirituality. Understanding character strengths as internal capacities and abilities across disabilities, problems, and suffering. Character Strengths - the Abilities Within Disabilities is an essential and valuable resource for researchers, professors, clinicians, practitioners, and therapists as well as graduate students in the fields of developmental and positive psychology, rehabilitation, social work, special education, occupational, speech and language therapy, public health, and healthcare policy.

"The book's overarching message is an important one: The experience of most people with disabilities is not what nondisabled persons anticipate--contrary to the latter's beliefs and expectations, the former can lead full and normal lives. Thus, The Social Psychology of Disability is designed to counter stereotypical or biased perspectives aimed at an often overlooked minority group."--Publisher information.