Evaluates the concept of "establishing operation" (EO) in the functional analysis of problem behavior in people with developmental disabilities. Suggestions for detecting "conditioned establishing operations" are offered. Also discusses the development of treatment strategies that seek to modify EOs, extinguish EOs, and modify…

This discussion of positive behavior support for people with disabilities identifies four themes: (1) behavior support should reduce problem behavior and affect how a person lives; (2) functional assessment is the foundation for understanding patterns of problem behavior; (3) behavior support should be comprehensive in structure and scope; and (4)…

A study examined the relation between communication development and aberrant behavior in 13 preschool children with developmental disabilities. There was a strong inverse relation between communication ability and severity of aberrant behavior. Deficits in receptive language were more strongly associated with severe aberrant behavior, particularly…

Ninety-two adults with developmental disabilities were interviewed about their church attendance. Fifty-two percent reported they had attended church in the last seven days. Of these attendees, 73 percent attended a Christian church, 94 percent know the name of their church, and 48 percent attended church with a family member. (Contains…

Discusses how to improve organizational performance by involving customers in partnerships. Relates experiences at the Center for Development and Disability at the University of New Mexico, serving people with developmental disabilities, which helped realize their mission, helped staff cross from theory to application, and increased relevancy and…

A reaction to Sowell's book raises issues about behaviorally based diagnoses, stressing that developmental disorders are behaviorally defined dimensions along a continuum with no crisp partition between normalcy and disorders. It sees developmental disorders as usually the expression of extremely complex, multigenic influences on brain…

Interviews with 12 students with developmental disabilities, parents, and educators regarding the transition planning process found most students optimistic about the future, although parents and teachers thought transition planning was incomplete. Strategies to promote student involvement in transition planning were recommended. (JOW)

Discussion of family involvement in functional assessment (FA) with individuals who have autism or related disabilities first provides a rationale for family involvement, then reviews the literature and offers guidelines including: recognize, respect, and accommodate families' individuality; create a context for family centered participation; take…

Tests the developmental lag hypothesis, which assumes that a surface pattern of reading difficulties should be attributed to a general developmental delay. Compares a sample of very low birth weight children with a group of same-age, normal readers. Provides further evidence that a surface pattern of reading difficulty should be attributed to a…

Five elementary students with developmental disabilities were taught health and safety facts using either classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) or traditional teaching methods. Comparison indicated that both CWPT procedures and traditional teacher-led procedures produced similar outcomes. Discussion focuses on advantages of using CWPT to acquire basic…

Tangible and pictorial paired-stimulus (PPS) preference assessments were compared for 6 individuals with developmental disabilities. During tangible and PPS assessments, two edible items or photographs were presented on each trial, respectively, and approach responses were recorded. Both assessments yielded similar preference hierarchies for 3…

The aim of this article is to provide an in-depth description of early development in a young child with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS). SMS is a multisystem, neurodevelopmental genetic disorder associated with mental retardation that predisposes individuals to a distinct pattern of maladaptive behaviors and other neuropsychological impairments.…

This article describes the ASSETS School, a K-12 school for gifted, dyslexic, and gifted-dyslexic children in Honolulu, Hawaii. Originally founded as a school that provided specialized education for developmentally disabled children of military families stationed in Hawaii, in the mid 70s, ASSETS rededicated its mission to become a haven for…

Three children with developmental disabilities were taught to initiate social interactions to typically developing peers using scripts (Krantz & McClannahan, 1993). Scripts were statements written on a page or recorded onto audio cards that were repeated by the participants. A multiple-baseline-across-participants experimental design was used to…

Four adults with developmental disabilities were taught to make conditional discriminations between either pictures and their corresponding printed English and Spanish words, or tastes and their corresponding printed English and Spanish words. Participants required more training trials to master the visual-visual conditional discriminations than…