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Peer interactions and academic engagement of youth with developmental disabilities in inclusive middle and high school classrooms.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined the peer interactions and academic engagement of 23 middle and high school students with developmental disabilities within inclusive academic and elective classrooms. The extent to which students with and without disabilities interacted socially was highly variable and influenced by instructional format, the proximity of general and special educators, and curricular area. Peer interactions occurred more often within small group instructional formats, when students were not receiving direct support from a paraprofessional or special educator, and in elective courses. Academic engagement also varied, with higher ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Carter EW, Sisco LG, Brown L, Brickham D, Al-Khabbaz ZA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Gatekeepers of science: attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disability.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Researchers and Institutional Review Board (IRB) members' attitudes influence scientific knowledge about individuals with intellectual disability. We recruited 260 intellectual disability researchers and IRB members to develop a measure of attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disability, the Participation in Research Attitude Scale. Findings suggest three conceptual domains: Opportunity and Choice, Help in Decision Making, and Beneficence. We also examined individual differences in attitudes and the relationships between general and specific attitudes. In general, intellectual disabil...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: McDonald KE, Keys CB, Henry DB Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Memory skills of boys with fragile X syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Multiple aspects of memory were examined in 42 boys with fragile X syndrome and a comparison group of 42 typically developing boys matched on MA. Working memory, incidental memory, and deliberate memory were assessed with a battery that included both free-recall and recognition tasks. Findings indicated that boys with fragile X syndrome performed more poorly than their matches on most measures. The exception was free recall, in which their accuracy was equal to that of the control participants. Results from analyses of a subset of boys with fragile X syndrome who exhibit characteristics of autism and their MA matches, ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Ornstein PA, Schaaf JM, Hooper SR, Hatton DD, Mirrett P, Bailey DB Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Evidence for latent classes of IQ in young children with autism spectrum disorder.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Autism is currently viewed as a spectrum condition that includes strikingly different severity levels; IQ is consistently described as one of the primary aspects of the heterogeneity in autism. To investigate the possibility of more than one distinct subtype of autism based on IQ both latent class analysis and taxometrics methods were used to classify Mullen IQs in a sample of 456 children with autism spectrum disorder. We found evidence for multiple IQbased subgroups using both methods. Groups differed in level of intellectual functioning and patterns of verbal versus nonverbal ability. Results support the notion of d...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Munson J, Dawson G, Sterling L, Beauchaine T, Zhou A, Elizabeth K, Lord C, Rogers S, Sigman M, Estes A, Abbott R Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Autism profiles of males with fragile X syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Autism, which is common in individuals with fragile X syndrome, is often difficult to diagnose. We compared the diagnostic classifications of two measures for autism diagnosis, the ADOS and the ADI-R, in addition to the DSM-IV-TR in 63 males with this syndrome. Overall, 30% of the subjects met criteria for autistic disorder and 30% met criteria for PDD-NOS. The classifications on the ADOS and DSM-IV-TR were most similar, whereas the ADI-R classified subjects as autistic much more frequently. We further investigated the relationship of both FMRP and FMRI mRNA to symptoms of autism in this cohort and found no significant...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Harris SW, Hessl D, Goodlin-Jones B, Ferranti J, Bacalman S, Barbato I, Tassone F, Hagerman PJ, Herman H, Hagerman RJ Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Choice-Making Among Medicaid HCBS and ICF/MR Recipients in Six States.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Choice in everyday decisions and in support-related decisions was addressed among 2,398 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities receiving Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) and Intermediate Care Facility (ICF/MR) services and living in nonfamily settings in six states. Everyday choice in daily life and in support-related choice was considerably higher on average for HCBS than for ICF/MR recipients, but after controlling for level of intellectual disability, medical care needs, mobility, behavioral and psychiatric conditions, and self-reporting, we found that choice was more strongly assoc...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Lakin KC, Doljanac R, Byun SY, Stancliffe R, Taub S, Chiri G Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Strategies and correlates of jigsaw puzzle and visuospatial performance by persons with prader-willi syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Some individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome exhibit strengths in solving jigsaw puzzles. We compared visuospatial ability and jigsaw puzzle performance and strategies of 26 persons with Prader-Willi syndrome and 26 MA-matched typically developing controls. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome relied on piece shape. Those in the control group used a different, picture-focused strategy. Individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome performed better than did the control group on an achromatic interlocking puzzle, whereas scores on puzzles with pictures (interlocking or noninterlocking) did not differ. Visuospatial scores relat...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Verdine BN, Troseth GL, Hodapp RM, Dykens EM Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Parent training for young children with developmental disabilities: randomized controlled trial.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate a parent training intervention for caregivers with preschool-age children with developmental disabilities. The 21 families in the experimental group received usual care plus the 12-week Incredible Years Parent Training Program with developmental delay modifications. Families in the control group (n = 23) received usual care, including early childhood education and related services. Results suggest that this parent training intervention was superior to usual care for young children with developmental delays or disabilities in reducing negative parent-child interactions ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: McIntyre LL Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Selective attention deficits associated with mild cognitive impairment and early stage Alzheimer's disease in adults with down syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Adults with Down syndrome and early stage Alzheimer's disease showed decline in their ability to selectively attend to stimuli in a multitrial cancellation task. They also showed variability in their performance over the test trials, whereas healthy participants showed stability. These changes in performance were observed approximately 2 years prior to a physician's diagnosis of possible Alzheimer's disease, which was made when they were exhibiting declines in episodic memory suggestive of mild cognitive impairment. Performance on this task varied with the evolution of dementia, showed modestly good sensitivity and spe...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Krinsky-McHale SJ, Devenny DA, Kittler P, Silverman W Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Symptoms and behavior problems of adolescents and adults with autism: effects of mother-child relationship quality, warmth, and praise.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Using a cross-lagged panel design, we investigated the impact of positive family processes on change in autism symptoms and behaviors. A sample of 149 co-residing mothers and their adolescent or adult child with autism was drawn from a large, longitudinal study. Maternal warmth and praise were measured using coded speech samples in which mothers talked about their son or daughter. A high level of relationship quality was associated with subsequent reductions in internalizing and externalizing problems as well as reductions in impairments in social reciprocity and repetitive behaviors. Maternal warmth and praise were al...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Smith LE, Greenberg JS, Seltzer MM, Hong J Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Functional analysis of the early development of self-injurious behavior: incorporating gene-environment interactions.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The analysis of the early development of self-injurious behavior (SIB) has, to date, reflected the wider distinction between nature and nurture. Despite the status of genetic factors as risk markers for the later development of SIB, a model that accounts for their influence on early behavior-environment relations is lacking. In the current paper we argue that the investigation of gene-environment interactions (GxE) and other forms of gene-environment interplay could potentially enhance current approaches to the study of self-injury. A conceptual model of the early development of SIB based explicitly on such relations i...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Langthorne P, McGill P Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Résumés en français.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Résumés en français. Am J Ment Retard. 2008 Sep;113(5):418-9 Authors: PMID: 18702560 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Special section on evidence-based practices for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 18702561 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Special issue on cognitive neuroscience studies of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 18702562 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - August 17, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Call for submissions to the american journal on mental retardation special issue on cognitive neuroscience studies of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 18564893 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Special section on evidence-based practices for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 18564892 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Résumés en français.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Résumés en français. Am J Ment Retard. 2008 Jul;113(4):319-20 Authors: PMID: 18564891 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Social comparison and depression: people with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
There has been limited research on the role of sociocognitive factors in depression with people who have a mild intellectual disability. However, an association has been found between negative social comparison and depressed mood. We extend previous work by including individuals with clinical depression. A between-groups design of 18 depressed versus 18 nondepressed participants was used. Depression measures were administered, along with measures of self-esteem and social comparison. Participants reported the salience of the social comparisons they made. Depressed participants reported significantly more negative socia...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Macmahon P, Jahoda A Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Face processing and facial emotion recognition in adults with down syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Face processing and facial expression recognition was investigated in 17 adults with Down syndrome, and results were compared with those of a child control group matched for receptive vocabulary. On the tasks involving faces without emotional content, the adults with Down syndrome performed significantly worse than did the controls. However, their performance was good on the tests with complete faces. On the facial expression tasks, participants with Down syndrome exhibited particular difficulties with the neutral and surprised expressions. Analysis of their error pattern suggest they had a tendency to judge faces more...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Barisnikov K, Hippolyte L, Van der Linden M Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Prevalence of autism spectrum phenomenology in cornelia de lange and cri du chat syndromes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Autism spectrum disorder characteristics have not been evaluated in Cornelia de Lange and Cri du Chat syndromes using robust assessments. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and Social Communication Questionnaire were administered to 34 participants with Cornelia de Lange syndrome and a comparison group of 23 participants with Cri du Chat syndrome (M ages 12.4 [SD = 3.8] and 10.3 years [SD = 3.6], respectively). Twenty-one participants with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (61.8%) scored above the autism cut-off on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule compared to 9 with Cri du Chat syndrome (39.2%). Prevalence o...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Moss JF, Oliver C, Berg K, Kaur G, Jephcott L, Cornish K Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Stability and change in health, functional abilities, and behavior problems among adults with and without down syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Changes in health, functional abilities, and behavior problems among 150 adults with Down syndrome and 240 adults with mental retardation due to other causes were examined with seven assessments over a 9-year period. Adults were primarily younger than 40, the age at which declines begin to be evident in individuals with Down syndrome. Adults with Down syndrome were advantaged in their functional abilities and lack of behavior problems, comparable in health, and exhibited comparable rates of change on these measures as adults with mental retardation due to other causes. Placement out of the parental home and parental de...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Esbensen AJ, Seltzer MM, Krauss MW Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Combined sensory impairment (deaf-blindness) in five percent of adults with intellectual disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Our purpose in this cross-sectional study with 1,598 adult clients who had intellectual disabilities was to obtain valid prevalences of sensory impairments and to identify associations. The diagnoses were made through ophthalmologic and audiometric assessments, applying WHO/IASSID definitions. Re-weighted prevalences were 5.0% (95% CI 3.9- 6.2%) for the total adult population; 2.9% (1.9-4.1), less than 50 years; and 11.0% (7.9- 14.7), 50 years and over. Apart from being 50 years of age and over, p = .000, risk factors were more severe intellectual disability, p = .0001, and Down syndrome, p = .001. Results show that th...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Meuwese-Jongejeugd A, van Splunder J, Vink M, Stilma JS, van Zanten B, Verschuure H, Bernsen R, Evenhuis H Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Role of special olympics for mothers of adult athletes with intellectual disability.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The role of Special Olympics in the lives of mothers of adult athletes was examined. Forty-six mothers participated in a longitudinal study, completing a parenting stress questionnaire, a measure of their child's maladaptive behavior, and a survey of athlete involvement in Special Olympics at two time periods, 42 months apart. Results confirm that involvement in Special Olympics is negatively correlated with mothers' role restriction, isolation, depression, and problems with competence and attachment. Involvement in Special Olympics fully mediated the effect of child social maladjustment on maternal role restriction an...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - July 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Weiss JA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Call for Submissions to the American Journal on Mental Retardation (AJMR): Special Section on Evidence-Based Practices for Persons With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Authors: PMID: 18407726 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Résumés en français.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Résumés en français. Am J Ment Retard. 2008 May;113(3):238-9 Authors: PMID: 18407725 [PubMed - in process]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Interrater reliability of the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS).Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The interrater reliability of the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) was investigated under the condition that interviewers had to have been trained and/or experienced in its administration and scoring. Both corrected and noncorrected Pearson's product-moment coefficients were generated to assess interinterviewer, interrespondent, and mixed interrater reliability. The correlation coefficients for the SIS Support Needs Index Score and SIS subscale scores were considerably higher than coefficients reported in the SIS Users Manual that were derived from a similar study conducted with untrained, inexperienced interviewers. ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Thompson JR, Tassé MJ, McLaughlin CA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Signaling noncomprehension of language: a comparison of fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Signaling noncomprehension of the spoken messages of others was examined for youth with fragile X or Down syndrome in comparison with each other and nonverbal MA-matched typically developing children. A direction-following task was used in which some of the directions were inadequate. Both syndrome groups signaled noncomprehension less often than did the typically developing children. The ability to signal noncomprehension appropriately was related to a measure of receptive vocabulary and syntax. Preliminary analyses indicated that males with fragile X syndrome signaled noncomprehension less often than did their female...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Abbeduto L, Murphy MM, Kover ST, Giles ND, Karadottir S, Amman A, Bruno L, Kim JS, Schroeder S, Anderson JA, Nollin KA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Veridical and false pictorial memory in individuals with and without mental retardation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Veridical and false pictorial recognition were assessed in individuals with mental retardation; groups were matched for MA and CA. Pictures were viewed in either a generative or static format at acquisition. The individuals with mental retardation and those in the MA-matched group had higher rates of false memories for critical items and lower hit rates than did their CA-matched peers. The mental retardation group demonstrated an acquiescent response bias (i.e., high novel false-alarm rate). When data were corrected for this bias, those with mental retardation had significantly lower hit rates but equivalent false-alar...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Carlin MT, Toglia MP, Wakeford Y, Jakway A, Sullivan K, Hasel L Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Short-term memory coding in children with intellectual disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
To examine visual and verbal coding strategies, I asked children with intellectual disabilities and peers matched for MA and CA to perform picture memory span tasks with phonologically similar, visually similar, long, or nonsimilar named items. The CA group showed effects consistent with advanced verbal memory coding (phonological similarity and word length effects). Neither the intellectual disabilities nor MA groups showed evidence for memory coding strategies. However, children in these groups with MAs above 6 years showed significant visual similarity and word length effects, broadly consistent with an intermediate...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Henry L Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis for the adaptive behavior assessment system-II parent form, ages 5-21.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The AAIDD has promulgated various models of adaptive behavior, including its 1992 model stressing 10 adaptive skills and its 2002 model that highlighted three conceptual domains. In previous studies on the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II (ABAS-II), researchers found support for a model including both 10 adaptive skills and three conceptual domains. To extend this review, we examined gender-invariant structure of adaptive behavior using the ABAS-II Parent Form, Ages 5-21, to answer four questions: Do the skill areas in this measure display the same pattern of factor loadings and the same factor loadings? Are inte...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Wei Y, Oakland T, Algina J Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Perceived quality of life in mothers of children with fragile X syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A mixed method approach was used to explore quality of life of 101 mothers of children with fragile X syndrome. Mothers completed a self-report of personal quality of life and measures of mental health and well-being. A subset was interviewed about quality of life. The distribution of scores on the Quality of Life Inventory was similar to the norms, indicating that these mothers do not, as a whole, report a lower quality of life than does the average woman. Significant predictors of quality of life were trait hope and parenting stress. The most common positive factor was being a mother. However, they also indicated tha...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - May 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Wheeler AC, Skinner DG, Bailey DB Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Outcomes and costs of community living: semi-independent living and fully staffed group homes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In a matched-groups design, costs and quality of life outcomes for adults with intellectual disabilities with relatively low support needs were compared between those in fully staffed group homes (n = 35) and in semi-independent living (n = 35). Data were collected on participant characteristics, setting organization, various lifestyle outcomes, and costs. There were no differences in the majority of lifestyle outcome measures. Fully staffed participants had better outcomes in money management and some health indicators. Semi-independent living participants had better outcomes for choice and community activities undert...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Felce D, Perry J, Romeo R, Robertson J, Meek A, Emerson E, Knapp M Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Maladaptive behaviors related to dementia status in adults with Down syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Changes in maladaptive behaviors related to specific stages of dementia were investigated in 251 adults 45 years of age and older with Down syndrome. Findings indicate clear differences in maladaptive behaviors at various stages of dementia. Generally, individuals with no signs or symptoms of dementia displayed fewer and less severe maladaptive behaviors than individuals in the early and mid-stages of dementia. Individuals transitioning into the early stages of dementia from no dementia displayed increased aggression, fearfulness, sadness, sleep problems, social inadequacy, stealing, and general regressive behavior. Th...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Urv TK, Zigman WB, Silverman W Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Self-reported well-being of women and men with intellectual disabilities in England.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We investigated the association between indicators of subjective well-being and the personal characteristics, socioeconomic position, and social relationships of a sample of 1,273 English adults with intellectual disabilities. Mean overall happiness with life was 71% of the scale maximum, a figure only marginally lower than typically reported among the general population. Variation in subjective well-being was strongly and consistently related to indicators of socioeconomic position and, to a lesser extent, social relationships. For women, being single was associated with greater well-being on all indicators. For men, ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Emerson E, Hatton C Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Profiles of women who have mental retardation with and without a documented history of abuse.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Thirty-six women with mental retardation were divided into two groups on the basis of whether they had a documented history of abuse during the preceding 5 years. The women with this history were more likely than the women with no documented history of abuse to be employing passive/avoidant decision-making strategies, reporting higher levels of stress, having dual diagnoses, be receiving counseling, and relying on others to go out into the community. We recommend that special attention be paid to designing interventions that are tailored to the specific needs of these women. PMID: 18240874 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Hickson L, Khemka I, Golden H, Chatzistyli A Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Dual-task processing as a measure of executive function: a comparison between adults with Williams and Down syndromes.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined short-term memory, then explored whether dual-task processing further characterized behavioral phenotypes in 53 older adults with Down syndrome, 10 with Williams syndrome, and 39 controls. Short-term memory profiles generally conformed to those of younger individuals. Pegs placement and number repetition were performed singly and simultaneously. There were no etiology group performance differences on single tasks. During concurrent processing, all groups maintained single-task performance on pegs, but declined on number repetition. However, participants with Down syndrome declined more, suggesting relatively gr...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Kittler PM, Krinsky-McHale SJ, Devenny DA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Public health approach to the study of mental retardation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We applied a public health approach to the study of mental retardation by providing a basic descriptive epidemiological analysis using a large statewide linked birth and public school record database (N = 327,831). Sociodemographic factors played a key role across all levels of mental retardation. Birthweight less than 1000 g was associated with the highest individual-level risk, but the impact varied considerably, depending on maternal educational level. Low maternal education was associated with the largest effects at the population level for mild and moderate/severe mental retardation. Focusing exclusively on specif...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - March 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Chapman DA, Scott KG, Stanton-Chapman TL Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Screening individuals with intellectual disability for psychiatric disorders: comparison of four measures.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Convergences and divergences between four of the most commonly used checklists for psychiatric disorders (the Reiss Screen, The Mini PAS-ADD, the DASH-II, and the ADD) were examined. We screened 181 individuals with intellectual disability for psychiatric disorders with the four checklists and compared the results on the checklists. The concordance of the overall scores on the four checklists was high; but the agreement on specific psychiatric disorders was limited. The results indicate that the checklists are useful as general indicators of psychiatric disorders, but are of less value for specifying the nature of the ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - January 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Myrbakk E, von Tetzchner S Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Compulsive, self-injurious, and autistic behavior in children and adolescents with fragile X syndrome.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Compulsive, self-injurious, and autistic behaviors were examined in 31 boys and 29 girls with fragile X syndrome aged 5 to 20 years. Self-injurious behavior occurred in 58% of boys and 17% of girls, whereas compulsive behavior occurred in 72% of boys and 55% of girls and did not appear to be associated with self-injurious behavior. Fifty percent of boys and 20% of girls met diagnostic criteria for autism on the ADOS-G. Girls who showed compulsive behavior had lower levels of FMRP than girls who did not show compulsive behavior, and boys with autistic symptoms had lowered levels of cortisol. Taken together, these data s...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - January 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Hall SS, Lightbody AA, Reiss AL Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Emotional competence in children with Down syndrome: negativity and regulation.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined negative affective expressions and a range of emotion regulation/coping strategies during a frustrating task in a sample of children with Down syndrome, nonspecific mental retardation, and typical development. Results revealed that children with Down syndrome displayed significantly more frustration and more orienting to the experimenter without asking for help. Typical children used more goal-directed strategies, including assistance-seeking and cognitive self-soothing. Findings suggest that children with Down syndrome may use a limited repertoire of strategies for coping with frustration. Suggestions for futu...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - January 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Jahromi LB, Gulsrud A, Kasari C Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Mothers' social communicative adjustments to young children with mild developmental delays.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The social communication and compliance patterns of 63 mothers interacting with their young children who had mild developmental delays in social play and instructional tasks were examined in a longitudinal study. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that mothers appropriately adjust their social communications in accordance with children's developmental characteristics and task demands. The extent of scaffolding specificity that mothers used in the instructional task also indicated a high level of sensitivity to children's developmental characteristics. Analyses conducted over a 2-year period revealed that adjus...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - January 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Guralnick MJ, Neville B, Hammond MA, Connor RT Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Use of medication for the management of behavior problems among adults with intellectual disabilities: a clinicians' consensus survey.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Current prescribing preferences among relevant experts regarding the use of psychotropic medication for the management of behavior problems in adults with intellectual disabilities in the absence of a diagnosed psychiatric illness was defined. We used a questionnaire design to synthesize the preferences of a large group, namely, clinical psychiatrists, thereby establishing a consensus. A total of 108 completed questionnaires were analyzed. A very strong preference for the use of nonmedication-based interventions was established. Of the medication options presented, atypical antipsychotics were most favored, with Risper...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - January 1, 2008 Category: Disability Authors: Unwin GL, Deb S Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Prokinetic therapy reduces aspiration pneumonia in tube-fed patients with severe developmental disabilities.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
To evaluate the clinical benefit of prokinetic therapy in aspiration pneumonia in patients with developmental disabilities, we conducted a retrospective study; records of 22 tube-fed patients were reviewed from December 1990 to October 1998 for a mean of 22.7 months before and 38.9 months during Cisapride therapy. Numbers of hospital admissions per patient-year before and during Cisapride administration were reduced from 2.75 to .61, with a relative risk reduction of 4.5. Days of hospitalization were reduced from 32.3 to 6.4. There were no adverse events noted from the therapy. Appropriately monitored prokinetic therap...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Pareek N, Williams J, Hanna D, Johnson WD, Minocha A, Abell TL Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Impact of postcensal versus intercensal population estimates on prevalence of selected developmental disabilities--metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, 1991-1996.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this report we describe prevalence estimates in Atlanta for mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and hearing and vision loss for 8 year olds from 1991-1994 and 1996. We used calculations of postcensal and intercensal population estimates. Intercensal population data were consistently higher than postcensal data, and prevalence estimates for developmental disabilities were lower using intercensal population data. This discrepancy varied by race and ethnicity. Comparison of population estimates, particularly at state and local levels, should be considered to assess meaningful differences in published prevalence estimates u...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Lazarus C, Autry A, Baio J, Avchen RN, Van Naarden Braun K Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Predictors of perceived negative impact in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Mothers of 110 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were interviewed with the Child and Adolescent Impact Assessment when their children were approximately 9 years old. Regression analyses revealed that African American mothers reported lower levels of perceived negative impact of having a child with ASD than did Caucasian mothers. Higher repetitive behavior scores on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, lower adaptive behavior scores on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, and less perceived social support were also significant predictors of higher perceived negative impact. Identifying predictors of pe...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Bishop SL, Richler J, Cain AC, Lord C Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Level of intellectual functioning predicts patterns of associated symptoms in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The relation between level of intellectual functioning and risk for associated symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was investigated. Cognitive ability and associated symptoms were assessed directly and/or via parent report in 74 children with ASD at 6 and 9 years of age. Participants were classified as lower and higher functioning using Nonverbal and Verbal IQ and Communication scores on the Vineland at age 6. Children with higher functioning at age 6 displayed increased internalizing symptoms by age 9, whereas children with lower functioning displayed higher hyperactivity, attention problems, and ...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Estes AM, Dawson G, Sterling L, Munson J Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Early intensive behavioral intervention: outcomes for children with autism and their parents after two years.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An intervention group (n=23) of preschool children with autism was identified on the basis of parent preference for early intensive behavioral intervention and a comparison group (n=21) identified as receiving treatment as usual. Prospective assessment was undertaken before treatment, after 1 year of treatment, and again after 2 years. Groups did not differ on assessments at baseline but after 2 years, robust differences favoring intensive behavioral intervention were observed on measures of intelligence, language, daily living skills, positive social behavior, and a statistical measure of best outcome for individual c...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Remington B, Hastings RP, Kovshoff H, degli Espinosa F, Jahr E, Brown T, Alsford P, Lemaic M, Ward N Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Transition and change in adolescents and young adults with autism: longitudinal effects on maternal well-being.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We investigated how change in the characteristics of 140 adolescents and young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) would predict subsequent change in maternal well-being and in the quality of the mother-child relationship. Overall patterns of improvement in maternal well-being and mother-child relationship quality were observed during the study. When the son or daughter had declining behavior problems, were prescribed more psychotropic medications, and exited from high school during the study period, mothers' well-being and perception of relationship quality improved to a greater extent. In addition, improvem...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - November 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Lounds J, Seltzer MM, Greenberg JS, Shattuck PT Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Dietary intake of adults with mental retardation who reside in community settings.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The dietary intake of adults with mental retardation among three different community residential settings was described and compared. Two dietary screeners were administered to 325 adults. The women's Fruit and Vegetable Screener scores from group homes were significantly higher than scores from those with family members and in semi-independent settings. No significant differences were found in dietary intake across residences for men. Overall, 0% to 6% of the participants consumed the recommended 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day, and 15% to 30% consumed the recommended<or=30% or less of calories from fat. Re...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - September 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Draheim CC, Stanish HI, Williams DP, McCubbin JA Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals

Prediction of social skills in 6-year-old children with and without developmental delays: contributions of early regulation and maternal scaffolding.Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Children's emotion dysregulation and maternal scaffolding at age 4 were examined as predictors of social skills at age 6, for 66 children with and 106 without early developmental delays. Observed scaffolding and regulation during frustrating laboratory tasks related to later mother, father, and teacher social-skill ratings for children with delays and were stronger predictors of social skills within this group than were developmental level and early behavior problems. In contrast, fewer associations were found for typically developing children, with early behavior problems providing the only unique prediction to social...
Source: American Journal of Mental Retardation : AJMR - September 1, 2007 Category: Disability Authors: Baker JK, Fenning RM, Crnic KA, Baker BL, Blacher J Tags: Am J Ment Retard Source Type: journals