Reading decoding ability is a fundamental skill to acquire word-specific orthographic information necessary for skilled reading. Decoding ability and its underlying phonological processing skills have been heavily investigated typically among developing students. However, the issue has rarely been noticed among students with intellectual disability who commonly suffer from reading decoding problems. This study is aimed at determining the contributions of phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automated naming, as three well known phonological processing skills, to decoding ability among 60 participants with mild intellectual disability of unspecified origin ranging from 15 to 23 years old. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that all three aspects of phonological processing are significantly correlated with decoding ability. Furthermore, a series of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that after controlling the effect of IQ, phonological awareness, and rapid automated naming are two distinct sources of decoding ability, but phonological short-term memory significantly contributes to decoding ability under the realm of phonological awareness.

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People with Down syndrome (DS) commonly experience challenges with sleep, executive functioning, everyday memory, and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A path analysis was conducted to determine if executive function mediated the relationship between sleep problems and both everyday memory and ADHD symptoms. Parents of 96 children and youth with DS completed questionnaires related to sleep, executive functioning, everyday memory, and ADHD symptoms. Results showed that executive functioning fully mediated the relation between sleep and both everyday memory and ADHD symptoms. Implications for education and intervention for children and youth with DS are discussed.

Optimal challenge refers to the balance between the challenge level of an activity and the skill level of an individual involved in the activity. A number of intrinsic motivation theories assume that optimal challenge is an influential facilitator of intrinsic motivation. Some researchers attempted to prove this assumption among people without any disability, using problem solving strategies or computer game playing activities. This study was aimed at determining its effectiveness among people with mild or moderate intellectual disability, using a music intervention program with three conditions. The results of one way repeated measure ANOVA and subsequent comparisons in pairs revealed that the high level of situational intrinsic motivation in the first condition of the intervention program where optimal challenges were provided for the first time significantly decreased to a low level in the second condition, where no optimal challenges were provided. It significantly increased again to a high level in the third condition, where optimal challenges were provided for the second time. The findings confirmed the importance of optimal challenge in promoting situational intrinsic motivation, as mentioned by intrinsic motivation theories, among people with intellectual Manipulating optimal challenge in a music intervention program 488 disability in a music intervention program. For implementing guidelines, some practical implications are mentioned.