Roy Mc Conkey
Biographic Data
| ID | 3561392 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Roy Mc Conkey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Roy |
| FAMILY NAME | Mc Conkey |
| SIGNATURE | MC CONKEY R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ulster |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8102-7402 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Using Sport to Build Inclusion Between Mainstream and Special Schools for Students with Intellectual Disabilities in Eastern Europe
Children with intellectual disabilities experience social exclusion in all countries of the world. This is compounded too by their attendance at special schools in more affluent countries, especially those with a history of segregation. The article describes how sport was used to bring together students from special schools with their non-disabled peers in neighboring mainstream schools based around the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools ®…
From Inclusive Research to Inclusive Evaluation
This article explores how people with intellectual disabilities can be more involved in evaluating and regulating the services they use and the quality of their lives. Traditionally, these evaluations have been performed by professionals, but we argue that people with lived experience of intellectual disabilities bring unique insights and should be part of the process. The idea builds on ‘inclusive research’, where people with intellectual disabi…
The Quality of Life of Iranian Mothers and Fathers of Children with Autism
The findings support the case for services to adopt a family-centred approach to the support they provide and for a greater engagement with fathers. Three strands are proposed for future research: recruiting families who receive little or no support, the identification of strategies for meeting the personal needs of parents, and undertaking longitudinal studies of interventions to improve family quality of life and the outcomes these have on the …
Nurturing Leaders in Community-Based, Primary Healthcare Services for People with Disabilities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
The health and social care needs of children and adults with disabilities are often neglected in many low- and middle-income countries. International opinion favours the creation of community-based supports rather than the institutional and clinic-based care that has dominated to date. However, models of care that are reliant on community leadership have been slow to develop within and across less affluent countries. Moreover, the managerial mode…
Creating Family-Centred Support for Children with Developmental Disabilities in Africa
Preschoolers with disabilities and their family caregivers are overlooked by many public health initiatives, especially in low-income countries. Yet they can benefit from early intervention to promote their development soon after birth and to provide a better quality of life for their families. In this paper, we describe how a community-based approach has been implemented with minimal funding in two areas in Zimbabwe: a township in Harare and in …
Engaging Children in Music-Making
The place of music in the school curriculum is under increasing threat, yet this is contrary to the growing evidence base of music’s value to pupils’ social and psychological development. A contributory factor is that many teachers report a lack of training, skill, confidence, or resources for excluding music in their classroom. An innovative project used young adults with disabilities as music mentors to improve children’s access to creative mus…
The Impact of a Family-Centred Intervention for Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities
The greater risk of poor mental health and social isolation, experienced by parents of children with developmental disabilities, is compounded by family circumstances and living in rural settings. Often parents receive little personal support. Family-centred interventions have been recommended internationally for promoting children's development, as well as boosting parental wellbeing. Yet, in many countries, current service provision is predomin…
Parental Perceptions of Family-Centred Supports for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Family-centred interventions have long been advocated in paediatric practice and in public health, but their implementation is rarer with children experiencing developmental disabilities. Moreover, the uptake is lower in families from more socially deprived backgrounds. Yet there is robust evidence that such interventions bring benefits to the family caregivers as well as to the affected children. The present study emerged from a support service …
The Psychometric Properties of the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (Gars-3) with Kurdish Samples of Children with Developmental Disabilities
There is marked variation internationally in the prevalence of children identified as having autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In part, this may reflect a shortage of screening tools for the early identification of children with ASD in many countries. This study aimed to evaluate the Kurdish translation of the Gilliam autism rating scale-third edition (GARS-3), a scale commonly used in Western countries that evaluates six domains related to the AS…
Screening Children for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Screening tools for the early identification of developmental disabilities are strongly advised, yet culturally valid tools are not readily available for use in low- and middle-income countries. The present study describes the context and the processes used to develop a suitable screening procedure for use in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. This was based on an autism rating scale-GARS-3-developed in the USA for use primarily with children's parent…
Inclusive Research and Intellectual Disabilities
In reflecting on the title of the special issue: Inclusive Research: A road less or more well-travelled, this paper reviews the strengths of inclusive research that have augmented the global knowledge about the lives of people with intellectual disabilities across the lifespan. The successes of inclusive research are outlined with the respective ongoing individual challenges discussed. Authors will draw upon their own experiences of inclusive res…
Social-Emotional Difficulties in Irish Children Aged Five and Nine Years
A small proportion of children experience social-emotional difficulties from early childhood onwards. Longitudinal studies with nationally representative samples are needed to identify the prevalence and the characteristics of children and families persistently experiencing these difficulties. Secondary analysis of data collected on over 7500 Irish children and with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as the primary indicator, found that…
The Use of Psychotropic Medication in Iranian Children with Developmental Disabilities
The use of psychotropic medication in children is increasing worldwide. Children with developmental disabilities seem to be prescribed these medications at a higher rate compared to their non-disabled peers. Little is known about prescribing in non-Western, middle-income studies. In Iran, the file records of 1133 children, aged 2 to 17 years, assessed as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or an intellectual disability (ID) in Tehran City and P…
The Development and Initial Validation of a Short, Self-Report Measure on Social Inclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities—A Transnational Study
Sport has been promoted as a means of increasing the social inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities. Suitable tools for evaluating this claim are not readily available. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report tool for use by people with intellectual disabilities regarding the social inclusion they experience in sport and in the community. A three-phase process was used. In the first phase an item bank of questionnaire items…
Changes in Children’s Speech and Language Difficulties from Age Five to Nine
In many countries, information on the prevalence of persistent speech and language disorders in early childhood is sparse due to the lack of nationally representative samples and longitudinal studies. Secondary analysis of data collected on over 7500 Irish children at ages 5 and 9 years, found that the prevalence of speech and language difficulties reported by the primary caregivers of Irish children decreased from one in six at age 5 to one in 1…
Changes over 15 years in lone parenting of Irish persons with intellectual disability
People with intellectual disability mostly require life-long care that in many countries is provided by parents. The increased risk of marital breakdown in these families has been a focus of attention but the research evidence is contradictory. This study overcomes the methodological shortcomings of past research by using national samples of lone parent carers and making comparisons with lone parenting in the general population based on four nati…
Public perceptions of the rights of persons with disability
Since 2006, three nationally representative surveys in Ireland have assessed public agreement to three rights inherent in the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities): attendance at ordinary schools, to have sexual fulfilment and to have children. Three questions are posed in this paper: do the Irish public perceive people with different impairments as having the same rights? Are they more supportive of certai…
A Brief Measure of Parental Wellbeing for Use in Evaluations of Family-Centred Interventions for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of family-centred interventions when children have developmental disabilities with the aim of supporting parents as well as fostering the child's development. Although various instruments have been developed to assess parental health, stress and quality of life, these are rarely used by practitioners because of the burden they place on informants. A brief measure, rooted in the concept of subjective …
Parental Satisfaction with Caregiving across the Life Span to Their Children with Developmental Disabilities
The increased life expectancy of adult individuals with developmental disabilities and the likelihood of parents having to continue caregiving into their old age is an emerging international issue which deserves investigation, especially concerning satisfaction with caregiving. Moreover, this needs to be assessed in different cultures in order to create a better understanding of how families are best supported in their lifelong caregiving. A samp…
How Disability and Other Socio-Economic Factors Matter to Children’s Socio-Emotional Outcomes
A case-study of policy change in residential service provision for adult persons with intellectual disability in Ireland
In Europe, many people with intellectual disabilities continue to live in congregated settings. In 2012, Ireland formally introduced a resettlement policy with people moving to live in more personalised arrangements. This longitudinal country case-study aimed to monitor the implementation of this policy and the intra-country variations that arose using the records maintained in the National Intellectual Disability Database. Details of over 4,000 …
Parental Satisfaction with Caregiving for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Parents of children with developmental disabilities face many challenges. Those who are less satisfied with the care-giving that their children receive may require extra support. This paper reports the development of a Parental Satisfaction with Caring for a child with Developmental Disability Index (PSCDDI), with items derived from literature reviews and pilot testing in Iran. The index was field tested with 256 parents caring for children with …
Perspectives on Inclusive Education of Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Developmental Disabilities in Iran
Background : Iranian children with disabilities invariably attend special schools and many may be excluded from education entirely. Information on preschool education is limited but probably mirrors the situation in schools. There is a lack of information in terms of parental preferences for schooling and teachers' experiences of inclusion in Iran. Method : Two feasibility studies were undertaken; one with 89 parents of children with autism or in…
A National Comparative Study over One Decade of Children with Intellectual Disabilities Living Away from Their Natural Parents
Children with intellectual disabilities are more likely than non-disabled children to live away from their families. Internationally, the aspiration is for them to live at home or in alternative family placements. This study uses national data on over 700 children from the Republic of Ireland to monitor their living arrangements over a ten-year period. In that time, the numbers of children in care had fallen significantly and especially for those…
Beyond friendship
Many people with learning disabilities aspire to having friends and to forming close relationships. Often the latter are discouraged, but for those who enter into such a relationship little is known about the meaning and value it brings to their lives. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into the close relationships of eight couples with learning disabilities using a combination of dyadic and one-to-one interviews. Data collection and an…
Views of People with Learning Difficulties about Current and Future Accommodation
There is growing emphasis on inclusion as a central philosophy in services for people with learning difficulties in the UK, Europe and the USA. Coupled with this is recognition of the need to actively involve people with learning difficulties in the research process through the use of more inclusive approaches. This paper reports the use of focus groups as a strategy for data collection from people with learning difficulties in a project that sou…
Inclusive Research and Intellectual Disabilities
In reflecting on the title of the special issue: Inclusive Research: A road less or more well-travelled, this paper reviews the strengths of inclusive research that have augmented the global knowledge about the lives of people with intellectual disabilities across the lifespan. The successes of inclusive research are outlined with the respective ongoing individual challenges discussed. Authors will draw upon their own experiences of inclusive res…
Beyond friendship
Many people with learning disabilities aspire to having friends and to forming close relationships. Often the latter are discouraged, but for those who enter into such a relationship little is known about the meaning and value it brings to their lives. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into the close relationships of eight couples with learning disabilities using a combination of dyadic and one-to-one interviews. Data collection and an…
Historic storms and shipwrecks in Ireland
A number of authors have dealt with the historical reconstruction of synoptic conditions from shipping records during isolated incidents, notably naval events. The paper presents a broad survey of Irish shipwrecks that correlate with historic storms in an attempt to quantify the extent of these incidents, and relate the weather observations of the distressed vessels to those at meteorological stations, as well as those put forward by meteorologis…
How Disability and Other Socio-Economic Factors Matter to Children’s Socio-Emotional Outcomes
A case-study of policy change in residential service provision for adult persons with intellectual disability in Ireland
In Europe, many people with intellectual disabilities continue to live in congregated settings. In 2012, Ireland formally introduced a resettlement policy with people moving to live in more personalised arrangements. This longitudinal country case-study aimed to monitor the implementation of this policy and the intra-country variations that arose using the records maintained in the National Intellectual Disability Database. Details of over 4,000 …
The Role of Blocked Presentation in the Elicitation of a Categorical Strategy of Remembering With Retarded Adults
Blocked presentation of categorical material has been found to increase the number of items recalled by retarded subjects. Three experiments are reported, aimed at discovering the reasons for this facilitation. With visually and simultaneously presented items in a multi‐trial free‐recall procedure, it was found that (1) although blocked presentation of categorical material facilitated recall, the provision of category cues did not do so; (2) bloc…
Pre‐school Mentally Handicapped Children
S ummary . Information was collected on 150 mentally handicapped children who were under 5. Many of the children had additional handicaps and all showed marked retardation in their physical, social, play and language development. The majority of parents expressed a willingness to take part in a parental involvement project. Their main concerns were with the child's speech and language development and in coping with management problems. The implic…
Implementation of Classroom Research Findings on the Early Language Development of Mentally Handicapped Children
Language intervention research with mentally handicapped children has identified techniques of proven effectiveness. However, this information has not been readily available to those professionals in the best position to help the children, namely teachers and their assistants. In an attempt to do this, a series of five video-programmes was made, illustrating assessment and teaching techniques suited to mentally handicapped children at the 'two-wo…
Assessing mentally handicapped children's use of sentence structuring rules
Mentally handicapped children's use of two-word sentence rules was examined in three different contexts (involving pictorial and object material) and on two separate occasions (4 weeks apart). 'Action + Object' sentences were the most frequently given throughout and were elicited more often with objects than with pictures. However the children showed little consistency in their sentence usage across the three contexts and over the two sessions. H…
Historic storms and shipwrecks in Ireland
A number of authors have dealt with the historical reconstruction of synoptic conditions from shipping records during isolated incidents, notably naval events. The paper presents a broad survey of Irish shipwrecks that correlate with historic storms in an attempt to quantify the extent of these incidents, and relate the weather observations of the distressed vessels to those at meteorological stations, as well as those put forward by meteorologis…
Parental perceptions of risks with older teenagers who have severe learning difficulties contrasted with the young people's views and experiences
The majority of school leavers over two years from two special schools for pupils with severe learning disabilities were individually interviewed (N = 34), as were their parents (N = 38). Parental reports stressed the amount of care and supervision required by these young people. They viewed them as vulnerable to various different hazards such as crossing roads and only a minority were prepared to take the risk of teaching them. However more of t…
Views of People with Learning Difficulties about Current and Future Accommodation
There is growing emphasis on inclusion as a central philosophy in services for people with learning difficulties in the UK, Europe and the USA. Coupled with this is recognition of the need to actively involve people with learning difficulties in the research process through the use of more inclusive approaches. This paper reports the use of focus groups as a strategy for data collection from people with learning difficulties in a project that sou…
The Characteristics of Children with a Disability Looked After away from Home and their Future Service Needs
Journal Article The Characteristics of Children with a Disability Looked After away from Home and their Future Service Needs Get access Roy McConkey, Roy McConkey Correspondence to Professor Roy McConkey, School of Nursing, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, N. Ireland BT37 0QB. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Theresa Nixon, Theresa Nixon Search for other works by this auth…
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and children with intellectual disabilities and their stress and general health
INTRODUCTION: The negative impact on mother’s well-being of having a child with developmental disabilities is well established in Western societies. By contrast less research has been undertaken in other cultures or with fathers. METHOD: A convenience sample of 91 parents was recruited in Tehran: 50 parents of children with intellectual disabilities and 41 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A Farsi translation of two widely …
Researching the Lives of Disabled Children and Young People
It describes the context of our practice from a UK policy and international perspective. As paediatric physiotherapists, we have a unique perspective on the lived experiences of disabled children and young people
Disabled Children's Voices
Disabled children are among the most marginalised in our society. Their influence has been negligible on policies and service practices that directly affect their lives. Empirical research using innovative methodologies can at least enable their voices to be heard. Based on the contributions of leading researchers and practitioners to a seminar series in the UK , a schema to guide future research was developed that aims to reduce the fragmented a…
Beyond friendship
Many people with learning disabilities aspire to having friends and to forming close relationships. Often the latter are discouraged, but for those who enter into such a relationship little is known about the meaning and value it brings to their lives. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into the close relationships of eight couples with learning disabilities using a combination of dyadic and one-to-one interviews. Data collection and an…
A National Comparative Study over One Decade of Children with Intellectual Disabilities Living Away from Their Natural Parents
Children with intellectual disabilities are more likely than non-disabled children to live away from their families. Internationally, the aspiration is for them to live at home or in alternative family placements. This study uses national data on over 700 children from the Republic of Ireland to monitor their living arrangements over a ten-year period. In that time, the numbers of children in care had fallen significantly and especially for those…
Parental Satisfaction with Caregiving for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Parents of children with developmental disabilities face many challenges. Those who are less satisfied with the care-giving that their children receive may require extra support. This paper reports the development of a Parental Satisfaction with Caring for a child with Developmental Disability Index (PSCDDI), with items derived from literature reviews and pilot testing in Iran. The index was field tested with 256 parents caring for children with …
Perspectives on Inclusive Education of Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Other Developmental Disabilities in Iran
Background : Iranian children with disabilities invariably attend special schools and many may be excluded from education entirely. Information on preschool education is limited but probably mirrors the situation in schools. There is a lack of information in terms of parental preferences for schooling and teachers' experiences of inclusion in Iran. Method : Two feasibility studies were undertaken; one with 89 parents of children with autism or in…
A case-study of policy change in residential service provision for adult persons with intellectual disability in Ireland
In Europe, many people with intellectual disabilities continue to live in congregated settings. In 2012, Ireland formally introduced a resettlement policy with people moving to live in more personalised arrangements. This longitudinal country case-study aimed to monitor the implementation of this policy and the intra-country variations that arose using the records maintained in the National Intellectual Disability Database. Details of over 4,000 …
Public perceptions of the rights of persons with disability
Since 2006, three nationally representative surveys in Ireland have assessed public agreement to three rights inherent in the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities): attendance at ordinary schools, to have sexual fulfilment and to have children. Three questions are posed in this paper: do the Irish public perceive people with different impairments as having the same rights? Are they more supportive of certai…
A Brief Measure of Parental Wellbeing for Use in Evaluations of Family-Centred Interventions for Children with Developmental Disabilities
Increasing emphasis is placed on the provision of family-centred interventions when children have developmental disabilities with the aim of supporting parents as well as fostering the child's development. Although various instruments have been developed to assess parental health, stress and quality of life, these are rarely used by practitioners because of the burden they place on informants. A brief measure, rooted in the concept of subjective …
Parental Satisfaction with Caregiving across the Life Span to Their Children with Developmental Disabilities
The increased life expectancy of adult individuals with developmental disabilities and the likelihood of parents having to continue caregiving into their old age is an emerging international issue which deserves investigation, especially concerning satisfaction with caregiving. Moreover, this needs to be assessed in different cultures in order to create a better understanding of how families are best supported in their lifelong caregiving. A samp…
How Disability and Other Socio-Economic Factors Matter to Children’s Socio-Emotional Outcomes
Social-Emotional Difficulties in Irish Children Aged Five and Nine Years
A small proportion of children experience social-emotional difficulties from early childhood onwards. Longitudinal studies with nationally representative samples are needed to identify the prevalence and the characteristics of children and families persistently experiencing these difficulties. Secondary analysis of data collected on over 7500 Irish children and with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire as the primary indicator, found that…
The Use of Psychotropic Medication in Iranian Children with Developmental Disabilities
The use of psychotropic medication in children is increasing worldwide. Children with developmental disabilities seem to be prescribed these medications at a higher rate compared to their non-disabled peers. Little is known about prescribing in non-Western, middle-income studies. In Iran, the file records of 1133 children, aged 2 to 17 years, assessed as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or an intellectual disability (ID) in Tehran City and P…
The Development and Initial Validation of a Short, Self-Report Measure on Social Inclusion for People with Intellectual Disabilities—A Transnational Study
Sport has been promoted as a means of increasing the social inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities. Suitable tools for evaluating this claim are not readily available. The aim of this study was to develop a self-report tool for use by people with intellectual disabilities regarding the social inclusion they experience in sport and in the community. A three-phase process was used. In the first phase an item bank of questionnaire items…
Changes in Children’s Speech and Language Difficulties from Age Five to Nine
In many countries, information on the prevalence of persistent speech and language disorders in early childhood is sparse due to the lack of nationally representative samples and longitudinal studies. Secondary analysis of data collected on over 7500 Irish children at ages 5 and 9 years, found that the prevalence of speech and language difficulties reported by the primary caregivers of Irish children decreased from one in six at age 5 to one in 1…
Changes over 15 years in lone parenting of Irish persons with intellectual disability
People with intellectual disability mostly require life-long care that in many countries is provided by parents. The increased risk of marital breakdown in these families has been a focus of attention but the research evidence is contradictory. This study overcomes the methodological shortcomings of past research by using national samples of lone parent carers and making comparisons with lone parenting in the general population based on four nati…
Psychology (30 works) · Family and Disability Support Research (21 works) · Developmental psychology (19 works) · Medicine (15 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works) · Intellectual disability (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works)