Research Papers

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Research Papers

We have an extensive collection of research papers, research summaries and other related documents which provide specialist knowledge and are available to download.

  • A-Z of All Research Papers
  • Annual Report
  • Project Guidelines
  • Research Paper
  • Research Summary
  • Student Research Project

Behavioural Interventions

This is a summary of a research study that looked at lots of other studies into behavioural interventions for sleep problems to see if they were effective.

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Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project

Our Project Guidelines explain how the Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project works.

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University of Warwick End of Grant Report

To read more about the research activities undertaken by the team, take a look at the End of Grant Report for January 2021-December 2023.

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University of Birmingham Annual Report

The annual report from the Core Research Programme at The Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

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University of Birmingham Sleep Annual Report

Understanding and reducing sleep disorders in children with developmental delay lay summary.

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University of Leeds Lay Summary

The project team at Leeds has been engaged in identifying the pre-symptomatic detection of conditions and promoting preventative strategies, thus reducing the incidence and burden of childhood brain injury.

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University of Leeds LEaP Annual Report

This annual report details the work by the University of Leeds LEaP Project.

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Digest of Opinions

In 2013 and 2014, the project team published compilations of the advice letters sent to families – the ‘Digests of Opinions’. They are a statement of the law and policy at that time.

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Autism in Genetic Syndromes

This briefing has been prepared to help parents and carers of children with genetic syndromes understand how and why autism spectrum disorder or related characteristics might be seen in children with genetic syndromes and what this might mean for assessment and intervention.

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Is the Diagnosis of a Genetic Disorder Important for Children with Intellectual Disability?

This briefing has been prepared to help parents and carers of children with intellectual disability consider if, or when, a genetic diagnosis can be helpful in understanding their child’s needs.

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Self Injurious Behaviour in Children with Intellectual Disability

This briefing has been written to help parents and carers of children with an intellectual disability to understand what self-injury is, what the causes are and which interventions are effective.

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Social Care Charges and Pet Care Costs

This student report explains how disabled people can find it difficult to afford to keep a pet at home because of the way councils calculate charges for social care support.

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Applying for a Disabled Facilities Grant

This student research report assesses how difficult it is for families to get an application form to apply for a disabled facilities grant in England.

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School Transport

Our student researchers at the School of Law, University of Leeds have published a report about the accuracy and accessibility of school transport information on local authority websites in England.

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Disabled Facilities Grants

The project team has published a report which considers the benefits of investing in home adaptations for disabled children, including cost savings and improvements in wellbeing.

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Short Breaks

In 2016, the project team published a report on the accessibility and accuracy of ‘short breaks’ statements, following a survey of over 40% of English social services authorities.

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Direct Payments for Disabled Children and Young People and their Families

Research by the University of Leeds Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project into direct payments for disabled children and young people and their families.

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Complaints Procedures for Disabled Children and their Families

The project team have published a report on the difficulties and delays faced by families of disabled children when using the local authorities complaints procedure in both England and Wales.

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Atypical autism in children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. The programme of work in this area has been to better describe and understand autism in children with the most complex […]

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The mental health of children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. Not long ago it was thought that people with the most severe intellectual disability and complex needs did not experience the […]

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Children and young people with rare genetic syndromes and intellectual disability

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. CNDD’s work on the emotion, cognition and behaviour of children and young people with rare genetic syndromes has been at the […]

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Self-injurious behaviour in children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. The Centre’s research studied the prediction of future risk for self-injury, and developed and applied a comprehensive clinical assessment method for […]

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Sleep problems in children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. Researcher’s experience was that sleep problems were common but neglected and that poor sleep may be related to both daytime behaviour […]

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Research findings, information, assessments, and teaching and training materials

This is one of a series of end of grant reports from Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (CCND) explaining the focus of their work and their achievements for the project period 2014 – 2019. This is a summary of Cerebra funded resources provided by the Centre.

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Delivering Legal Rights: Practical Problem Solving

This report summarises the achievements of our Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving Project between January 2016 and December 2019.

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Cerebra Family Research Group End of Grant Report

The research carried out by the team at Cerebra Family Research Group at the University of Warwick focuses on three big issues for families of children with brain conditions, specifically children with a learning disability and/or autism: Exploring whether the same family factors that influence the development of all children affect the development of children with […]

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1,000 Families Study

1000 Families Study, a UK multiwave cohort investigating the well-being of families of children with intellectual disabilities: cohort profile Richard P Hastings et al This research paper was published by BMJ Open as a result of the work we fund at University of Warwick. Published: January 2020

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Positive Gains Scale

Measurement invariance of the Positive Gains Scale in families of children with and without disabilities Mikeda Jess et al This research paper was published in the Research in Developmental Disabilities journal as a result of the research we funded at University of Warwick. What is the Positive Gains Scale? The Positive Gain Scale (PGS; Pit-ten […]

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The Role of Parenting in Child Development

Early Years Parenting Mediates Early Adversity Effects on Problem Behaviours in Intellectual Disability Totsika et al This research paper was published in the journal Child Development as a result of research we fund at the University of Warwick.

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Incredible Years Parenting Program

The Incredible Years Autism Spectrum and Language Delays Parent Program: A Pragmatic, Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial Williams et al This research paper was published in Autism Research as a result of work we fund at the University of Warwick. Find out more about The Incredible Years program.  

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Autism Plus Report

This student project was developed in partnership with the Disability Law Service and the BBC. The project was influenced by the number of reports received from families explaining that their local authority had denied their child with autism an assessment of their needs.

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Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving Project Annual Report 2020

Find out what our Legal Entitlements and Problem-Solving (LEaP) Project achieved in 2020.

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University of Barcelona Annual Report

Preventing prenatal brain damage with new tools for improved risk identification and therapy A report sharing the achievements and progress of our Foetal Research Programme made in in 2022.

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Institutionalising parent carer blame

This report looks at the experiences of disabled children and their families of the process by which their needs for care and support are assessed by English local authority children’s services departments.

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Cerebra Network for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Annual Report

This annual report details the work undertaken by the Cerebra Network for Neurodevelopmental Disorders in 2023.

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Investing in early intervention

Why we should intervene early to support children with learning disabilities and their families, with examples from practice showing how it can be done.

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University of Leeds Annual Report

The annual report report from the University of Leeds.

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Challenging Parent Carer Blame

Interim implementation research report 1:  Disability and human rights training and guidance for disabled children’s assessors This report builds on 2021 research findings entitled ‘Institutionalising parent carer blame’: research that concluded that social care policies in England create a default position for those assessing disabled children, that assumes parental failings. The research that underpins this […]

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The prevalence and impact of allegations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)

This research report considers the prevalence and impact on families in England, Scotland and Wales of being accused of creating or exaggerating their child’s difficulties – an extreme form of parent carer blame. Instances of this kind are referred to as ‘Fabricated or Induced Illness’ (FII).

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