Four experiments with six students with multiple profound disabilities examined the function of behavioral stereotypies and sensory modalities maintaining them. Findings are discussed in terms of the sensory and social reinforcers that maintain stereotypy, assessment procedures used to identify reinforcers, and the interpretation of assessment…

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…

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…

This study presents data on the physical, developmental, and behavioral characteristics of a group of 203 nonambulatory persons with profound mental retardation. It found a high prevalence of physical and medical problems, as well as high rates of self-injurious, stereotypic, and aggressive behavior and high variability in cognitive and adaptive…