The Handicap-Related Problems for Parents Inventory (HPPI) was developed for the measurement of handicap-related problems experienced by mothers of children with chronic physical conditions. An initial evaluation of its psychometric properties was completed with 119 mothers of children with physical or sensory impairments. The HPPI demonstrated…

To prevent seriously impaired psychotics from being misdiagnosed as mentally retarded, this article proposes the use of three established tests and a new developmentally rooted Cognitive Diagnostic Battery, which assesses conceptual, perceptual-motor, and social maturity. Empirical studies support the validity of this battery for use in…

This study, involving five college students observing behavior of individuals with mental retardation, found that interobserver agreement was better in the presence of certain stimuli (such as when the subject's peers were present versus when they were not). Of 10 additional variables thought to potentially affect agreement scores, 1 (can't see,…

This study describes the development of the Active Treatment Client Rights checklist (ATCR), which was designed to facilitate the assessment, monitoring, and implementation of readily observable client active treatment services for adults with developmental disabilities. The ATCR was found to be highly reliable, valid, and useful in enhancing…

This study used the Scales of Independent Behavior (SIB) and the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) to examine the relationship between ratings of adaptive behavior and social competence with 208 students in kindergarten through third grade with a variety of disabilities. The study provided evidence for the concurrent criterion-related validity of…

Twenty-five adolescents with mild to severe levels of mental retardation were compared with 25 normal intelligence adolescents on self-report and informant versions of childhood depression measures. Results indicated that the Children's Depression Inventory, Bellevue Index of Depression, and Reynolds Child Depression Scale may be effective…

Fifty-seven individuals with severe mental retardation, including 18 with a diagnosis of depression, 19 with autism and 20 without emotional disorders, tested the validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped II (DASH-II) depression subscale. Results found DASH-II to be a valid indicator of depression. (CR)

Although most males with a 49,XXXXY karyotype will have significant mental retardation, the case of an affected boy having mild-cognitive and motor delays and age-appropriate adaptive skills at 59 months is presented. Guarded optimism may be justified in affected males demonstrating close to or age-appropriate developmental skills through early…

Scores from the Child Behavior Checklist and the Client Development Evaluation Report for 67 children and adolescents with mental retardation were examined to evaluate the factorial validity of the instruments. Results found that both instruments were successful in measuring maladaptive behaviors and both yielded two-dimensional representations of…

The Psychopathology Instrument for Mentally Retarded Adults was used to diagnose 163 mentally retarded institutionalized adults according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-III axis 1 categories. Nine factors were extracted which contained 49.3 percent of the data variance and categorized correctly 69.3 percent of the cases. Factors included…

The psychometric properties of the Motivation Assessment Scale were examined using 90 ratings of different problem behaviors among 86 individuals with mental retardation. Although reliability and internal consistency were generally poor, the results depended upon topographies of problem behavior and methods of calculation. The construct validity…

Data from the experimental functional analysis of challenging behaviors of 27 individuals with mental retardation were analyzed to assess agreement among three forms of interpretation. Results found that the methods of interpreting function from experimental assessment can give different results and that test-retest reliability of the experimental…

A study explored the construct of general anxiety in 69 individuals with severe and profound mental retardation and evaluated the validity of the DASH-II anxiety subscale to determine its value in categorizing individuals with and without anxiety. Results indicated only behavioral symptoms associated with anxiety could be reliably assessed.…

A quasi-experimental message-passing procedure was used to assess the validity of facilitated communication (FC) with 23 people with severe to profound mental retardation. No subject was able to accurately label or describe objects with facilitation. Possible reasons for findings set forth by proponents of FC and consistency with the emerging…

A study of 233 individuals with severe mental retardation examined the validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II) through correlation with the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC). DASH-II as a whole was found to have a high degree of convergent validity with the ABC total score. (CR)