Title Participants Abstract "Non‐take up of the supplemental child benefit for children with a disability in Belgium: A mixed‐method approach" "Julie Vinck, Wim Van Lancker" "Families with disabled children run a great risk of being poor. Although policies providing poor families with financial benefits should be effective in reducing poverty, the actual effectiveness is often jeopardized by the issue of non‐take up (NTU). Yet, NTU of benefits aimed at disabled children is for the most part uncharted territory. In this article, we fill this gap using a mixed‐methods approach to (a) estimate the magnitude and characteristics of NTU in the Belgian “supplemental child benefit” by drawing on a large‐scale administrative dataset on childhood disabilities and (b) explore the determinants of NTU by means of semistructured interviews with experts and parents. We estimate an NTU rate of at least 10%, a substantial figure given that the benefit is not income tested. This mainly concerns children with “less visible disabilities” (autism spectrum disorder and other intellectual and psychological disorders) and results from insufficient information provision about the benefit's existence and eligibility criteria; process costs, for instance, the complexity of the procedure; and the way the scale to assess a child's disability is constructed." "Can I be your safe haven and secure base? A parental perspective on parent-child attachment in young children with a severe or profound intellectual disability" "Sien Vandesande, Guy Bosmans, Bea Maes" "BACKGROUND: The general developmental as well as the disability specific literature has stressed the crucial influence of parents on their child's social-emotional development. Attachment theory provides a framework to describe parental roles within the parent-child attachment relationship. The current study explored parents' perspectives on their role as attachment figure and the preconditions they consider necessary to establish secure attachment in children with severe or profound intellectual disability (ID). METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with 54 parents on their child's social-emotional development, attachment behaviour and the parent-child attachment bond were analysed using the Framework Method. All children were between 15 months and seven years old and had a severe or profound ID. RESULTS: Parents reported their child's clear preference towards them and acknowledged the role they fulfil as stress regulator. Children differed in the extent to which they use their parent to explore new environments. Overall, parents described the attachment relationship with their child as positive but challenging. CONCLUSIONS: Parents acknowledged the roles they fulfil both as a safe haven for their child, and (to a lesser extent) as a secure base. Clinical practice could benefit from a parental perspective to identify particular challenges parents encounter in building a secure attachment relationship." "21st century education, care and support for children and adults with a disability in Flanders (Belgium)" "Ilse Goethals, Kathy Colpaert, Claudia Claes" "At the turn of the 2l st century, substantial changes are taking place in Flanders (Belgium) with regard to the organization of education, care and support for people with disabiliîies. Overall, these changes are the result of new theoreticat insighr ãnd changed perspectives on disabilities: shift towards q social-ecological approach, supports paradigm and quality of life. The so-called ""M-Decree"" and Perspective 2020 qre the two most important reforms currently taking place in Flanders. The ""M-Decree"", a reþrm plan for special education which was approved in the Flemish Parliament in 2014, now wants to make a radical shift and aims at mainstreaming students with special needs in primary and se:condary education. Untilt now, the r""gr""gãrcd rpecial school remained the dominant type of education. Second, Perspective 2020, a policy plan lounched in 2010, aims at the active inclusion andfull participation of peopte with disabilities in society. This plan contains a centralfocus on the client and his/her network, stimulates person-centered support processes and plans through more individualizedfunding and induces a shiftfrom a supply-oriented model of care and support towards a demand-oriented model. Both ìeþrms are currently being implemented and will result in important changes, opportunities and challenges during the coming years." "Income poverty among children with a disability in Belgium: the interplay between parental employment, social background and targeted cash support" "Julie Vinck" "Previous research has shown a clear link between childhood disability and child poverty. This is related to the fact that parents of disabled children (1) need to provide more care, which impedes their employment participation; and (2) more often belong to disadvantaged social categories. However, the adverse relationship between childhood disability and child poverty can be cushioned by cash support systems. Hitherto, the literature lacks insight into how the receipt of different cash support systems is related to parental employment and social background, and what joint role these three factors play in understanding the poverty risk of these children. To fill this gap, a case study on Belgium is performed using unique and large-scale register data. The results show that disabled children have a lower income poverty risk than non-disabled children, even when parental employment and social background are taken into account. This can be explained by the targeted cash support disabled children receive. However, previous research showed that a substantial group of disabled children does not receive the benefit. Hence, more could be achieved if the non-take-up would be addressed, in particular among the most vulnerable children." "Interorganisational collaboration to improve accessibility of diagnostic evaluations for children with a developmental disability" "Eva Cloet, Anna C Jansen, Mark Leys" "Introduction: A timely integrated diagnostic and care trajectory for children with a developmental disability may prevent severe problems in later life. In Flanders, Belgium, different types of governmental regulated and subsidised settings offer diagnostic evaluations, as (part of) their mission. However, they operate in a non-coordinated way inducing severe accessibility problems for the public. This article studies the factors impacting on interorganisational collaboration and proposes an interorganisational conceptual model improving accessibility. Methods: Focus groups were performed per type of organisation. Qualitative data were categorised thematically in an iterative process of data- and researcher triangulation. A member check validation was organised. Results: Fifty-nine individuals participated in 6 focus groups. Structural and agency-related barriers for interorganisational collaboration were identified at micro, meso and macro level. Participants provided suggestions for better interorganisational collaboration. Discussion: To improve accessibility adapted to patients’ needs, a patient-centred, integrated and interorganisational network model grounded in a stepped care logic is proposed to adapt the current organisation-centred model. Conclusion: A timely, integrated, diagnostic and care trajectory for children with a developmental disability preventing severe problems in later life requires an integration of services during the overall care trajectory of children by means of interorganisational collaboration." "A cross-sectional analysis of developmental trajectories of vocabulary comprehension among children and adolescents with Down syndrome or intellectual disability of undifferentiated aetiology" "David Magis" "© 2016 Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability, Inc. Background In this work we sought to expand our knowledge of developmental trajectories of subcomponents of the language systems of individuals with intellectual disability (ID). We aimed to explore how general and relational vocabularies evolve as a function of cognitive level.Method Developmental trajectories of general and relational vocabulary comprehension were compared among typically developing (TD) children and children and adolescents with ID of undifferentiated aetiology (UND) or Down syndrome (DS).Results Comparisons between TD participants and participants with UND showed no interaction between cognitive level and diagnostic status for general vocabulary, and only a very weak interaction for relational vocabulary. Comparisons between TD participants and participants with DS failed to reveal group-specific trajectories. Performance in general vocabulary was higher than in relational vocabulary for participants with UND and DS.Conclusion The developmental trajectories of vocabulary appear to be globally comparable for participants with or without ID." "Interorganisational collaboration to improve accessibility of diagnostic evaluations for children with a developmental disability" "Eva Cloet, Anna Jansen, Mark Leys" "Introduction: A timely integrated diagnostic and care trajectory for children with a developmental disability may prevent severe problems in later life. In Flanders, Belgium, different types of governmental regulated and subsidised settings offer diagnostic evaluations, as (part of) their mission. However, they operate in a non-coordinated way inducing severe accessibility problems for the public. This article studies the factors impacting on interorganisational collaboration and proposes an interorganisational conceptual model improving accessibility.Methods: Focus groups were performed per type of organisation. Qualitative data were categorised thematically in an iterative process of data- and researcher triangulation. A member check validation was organised.Results: Fifty-nine individuals participated in 6 focus groups. Structural and agency-related barriers for interorganisational collaboration were identified at micro, meso and macro level. Participants provided suggestions for better interorganisational collaboration.Discussion: To improve accessibility adapted to patients' needs, a patient-centred, integrated and interorganisational network model grounded in a stepped care logic is proposed to adapt the current organisation-centred model.Conclusion: A timely, integrated, diagnostic and care trajectory for children with a developmental disability preventing severe problems in later life requires an integration of services during the overall care trajectory of children by means of interorganisational collaboration." "Object control skills influence the physical activity of children with intellectual disability in a developing country: The Philippiners" "Kathlynne Eguia, Catherine Capio, Johan Simons" "Object control skills influence the physical activity of children with intellectual disability in a developing country: The Philippiners" "Johan Simons" "The poverty puzzle among children with a disability" "Julie Vinck, Wim Van Lancker"