This study assessed the validity of idiosyncratic choice-making behaviors of three children with multiple disabilities. Children were given either their "choice" of food or drink or were given the opposite. Direct observations of children's acceptance or refusal revealed the children consistently indicated choices during both conditions.…

Mentally retarded emotionally disturbed children (N=31) were compared on the Child Depression Inventory and the Child Behavior Profile with 31 children in a normal school setting. Correlational data showed a strong relationship between the cut-off scores for both measures suggesting that similarities exist between depression in mentally retarded…

State conditions and environmental variables were measured over a 5-hour period for 25 students (ages 3-21) with profound and multiple handicaps. Results showed the presence of state sequence patterns, short state change periods, and a relatively small amount of association between specific behavior states and environmental factors and events.…

The symptomatology of 93 psychiatric inpatients with mild mental retardation was compared with that of a matched sample of inpatients without mental retardation. Patients with retardation displayed more outwardly directed and less inwardly directed symptoms; more symptoms involving action than thought; and psychotic symptom pictures which more…

Two studies with 50 students (ages 1 to 21) with severe, profound, and multiply handicapping conditions examined similarities and differences in behavior state conditions. Among findings were that profile groups could be identified by behavior state patterns and that students spent an average of 42 percent of classroom time in state conditions not…

The representativeness of behavioral observation samples with durations of less than the whole time of interest was investigated with five profoundly mentally retarded physically handicapped adults in an institutional setting. It was found that the session representativeness was a function of the relative duration of the behavioral categories and…

A functional analysis of eye poking by a four-year-old female with severe developmental disabilities and visual impairments showed that high rates occurred in all conditions. Attempts to identify the maintaining variable found that eye poking decreased only when finger-eye contact was interrupted by blocking the response. (Author/DB)

Fifty children and adolescents with affective disorders and mental retardation admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit were compared with 50 inpatients without depression. Behavioral symptoms occurred significantly more often in the affective group than in the comparison group. The behavioral presentation of affective symptoms in children and…