Robert Balogh

Background The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Numerous pandemic‐related stressors experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities may have impacted their ability to thrive, which has been linked to mental health outcomes. The current study examined the associations among COVID‐19 stressors, thriving, and mental health problems among youth and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Method Caregivers of 159 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities between 12 and 35 years of age from Canada completed an online questionnaire. Results A mediation analysis revealed that COVID‐19 stressors were positively associated with mental health problems, and that thriving partially mediated this association. Conclusion Our findings suggest that experiences of thriving may be an important target for mental health support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Children with autism engage in active play in different ways than children who are neurotypical, but their active play behaviors are not well understood. Research with twins and triplets with autism offers a unique opportunity to gain a clear picture of the play behaviors of children with autism because twins and triplets share many similarities (age, access to toys, etc.). Through semistructured interviews, this descriptive phenomenological study aimed to describe the active play behaviors of 19 twins and triplets with autism from the perspective of their parents ( N = 9). The interviews revealed two main themes: (a) parents’ descriptions of active play and (b) parents’ descriptions of social play. The results reveal the diverse active and social play behaviors of twins and triplets with autism; parents described their children’s play behavior when engaging in sensory, indoor, outdoor, and organized play. These results suggest that children with autism may be meeting the definition of active play in nontraditional ways.