Generalization refers to the extension of learned behaviours to novel conditions, and it is one of the criteria by which the effectiveness and efficiency of a remediation programme may be judged. This article extracts principles of generalization from the treatment literature, and provides examples of how this information may be used to help guide…

Medical records of residents of a facility for persons with mental retardation from January 1, 1978, through December 31, 1997, were analyzed to identify incidence of sudden unexpected death for 180 individuals with and 125 without comorbid epilepsy. Eighty deaths were identified, with 55 occurring in those with epilepsy. (Contains 15 references.)…

Interviews with 137 primary caregivers with developmentally disabled family members (ages 2-62) on waiting lists for out-of-home placement found that caregiver stress was a significant predictor of the urgency of placement need. Behavior problems of the disabled person were almost as important. Lack of support services was correlated with…

This study found that accuracy in predicting the out-of-home placement of children with severe disabilities increased little in a large cross-sectional sample (n=5,992) over a smaller semilongitudinal sample (n=141). Factors such as age, adaptive and maladaptive behavior, and ethnicity are discussed. (Author/JDD)

This study examined out-of-home applications of 88 Israeli parents who had children with severe mental retardation. Five predictors had significant correlations with parental application: high parental stress, less social support, favorable attitudes toward normalization, low family environment score, and the child being of adolescent age.…