To develop information regarding the commercial product purchasing behavior of mildly mentally retarded adults, 11 participants were included in a mock shopping exercise. The results indicated several serious deficiencies in the purchasing strategies of the participants. (Author/SB)

Discussed briefly is the need for a better means of evaluating mental institutional personnel behavior. (CB)

A system is described whereby sheltered workshop behaviors are transduced automatically by tools wired to operant programing and recording apparatus. (Author)

Behavioral tracking observations of 14 adult male residents in a school for the mentally retarded were made in an enriched and deprived setting on the ward. (Author)

Three data sets examining the prevalence of various abnormal stereotyped behaviors in severely disabled children attending early childhood programs indicated that the abnormal stereotyped behaviors increase with age at least until adolescence and that the effect is more marked in those with severe mental retardation. (CL)

Residential staff rated common consequences of stereotypic or self-injurious behaviors of 60 severely and profoundly retarded residents. Ratings indicated that only 7 percent of stereotypic behavior was followed by positive consequences or escape/avoidance from demands, while 30 percent was followed by staff attention and 38 percent led to escape…

A survey of parents of retarded children showed less than 3 per cent of the parents were shopping parents, defined as those who pursue a third professional evaluation after receiving at least two others on previous occasions. (KW)

The methodology of many studies that have identified specific genetic loci for disorders associated with mental retardation is criticized as failing to demonstrate an association between the behavior phenotype and the genetic marker. A more appropriate methodology using a multitrait-multimethod approach is suggested. (Author/JDD)

A case is made for the utility and necessity of thorough behavioral analysis and description of developmentally disabled children using Wolfenberger's "Five Embarrassments in the Diagnostic Process" as a point of departure. (DB)

A review of current treatment studies of pica or scavenging behavior in the mentally retarded is presented. (Author)

Parents of 78 young people with Down syndrome, age 17 to 24 years, were asked whether their offspring had ever used private speech (talking out loud to themselves). Results confirm the universality of private speech and its developmental pattern. No association was found between private speech and behavior problems, communication difficulties or…

Discussed is the role of the professional in preventing or stopping diagnostic and therapeutic shopping (repeated visits to the same or different professionals without resolution of a resolvable problem), with emphasis on the initial informing interview. (KW)