Here is an example search on the meaning of developmental disabilities. You could substitute any other terms and use the same methods to find articles that you need.
I tried two approaches to this question:
- I entered the terms "developmental and disabilities and definition" into the top search blank of the Academic Search Complete database. I also checked off "Scholarly (Peer-Reviewed Articles)". This turned up over 500 articles that included the term "definition" in the titles or abstracts of articles that also cover developmental disabilities. The tricky part of this is that the majority (or perhaps all) of the articles deal with specific disabilities rather than the general concept of "developmental disabilities".
- I tried a similar search in the PsycINFO database. I first entered "developmental disabilities" (quotations included) in the search blank. I then chose to search for it as a subject term. The results will focus on any articles that have developmental disabilities as a main focus. As there are thousands of results, you would want to narrow down by article type, years or publication, and added search terms.
You could definitely play around with joining "meaning" or "definition" or "history" with developmental disabilities in either database. You could also try focusing on a given disability (instead of just typing "developmental disabilities") to see what you find connected to "meaning," etc.