The book explores the legal profession's role in protecting the rights of mentally handicapped individuals. Section 1 provides background on mental retardation and residential care, explaining that mental retardation and poverty are closely interrelated. Section 2 reviews the long accepted public policy of supplanting institutional care with…

The relationship between self-control and role-taking deficits as exhibited by 37 female institutionalized juvenile delinquents was assessed by Chandler's measure of social egocentrism. Subjects, matched on the basis of their scores on the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) Test, were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment…

Perceptions of 160 institutionalized and 207 noninstitutionalized old people (mean age = 76.6 yrs.) were examined with respect to the quality of their family relations. Responses to six survey items measuring satisfaction with various aspects of family relations were cross-tabulated with gender, marital status, health status, age, and living…

The paper describes a special education staff's problems with teaching a severely handicapped institutionalized population and reports on observations of seven multiply handicapped (blind-mentally retarded) students. The students' feeding skills performance in the institution and the school was compared in such terms as diet, utensil use, special…

The study investigated three variables--juvenile delinquency, academic achievement, and attention span--with 77 incarcerated juveniles [18 emotionally handicapped (EH), 20 learning disabled (LD), 19 educable mentally retarded (EMR), and 20 nonidentified]. The Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude were used for testing in the areas of visual and…

The effectiveness of a prescriptive teaching program on the reading, arithmetic, and linguistic development of 35 institutionalized mentally retarded children (mean age 12 years) was investigated. A prescriptive, precision teaching approach was used, along with positive reinforcement in the curriculum areas of reading, mathematical computations,…

Guidelines (established at the Syracuse Development Center) for conducting human research with institutionalized mentally retarded persons are discussed, particularly in relation to research in behavior modification. After a literature review, the five step procedure suggested by the Center is listed with such steps as submitting a proposal which…

The effectiveness of various procedures in maintaining attendance at activities of residents at a geriatric facility was examined. A special, intermittently programmed or delayed consequence for attendance was added to regularly scheduled activities. Attendance at activities with and without the consequence was compared. Later, antecedent events…

Response-cost refers to a procedure whereby a positive reinforcer is lost or some penalty is invoked following a specific misbehavior. In an alternate procedure called Differential Reinforcement of Other Responses (DRO), a reinforcing stimulus is delivered when a particular response is not emitted for a specific interval of time. This study…

This study reports an experimentally designed evaluation of Reality Orientation. Twelve elderly residents were chosen for the experimental group and 13 residents were chosen for the no-treatment control group. Both classroom Reality Orientation and 24-hour Reality Orientation were introduced on the experimental floor. A pretest-posttest control…

The Cottage A Ward Behavior Modification Project at the Orient State Institute was designed to implement behavior modification techniques with 67 retarded child residents. Major project objectives included developing self-help skills (such as toilet training); eliminating undesirable behaviors (such as head banging); teaching behavior modification…

The move from formal institution living to an independent type of living situation was assessed in 18 mentally retarded adults with high (61-84) and low (56-39) IQ scores. Prior to and 6 months after the semi-independent living situation, Ss were administered the following measures: the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the AAMD (American…

One hundred and fifty-three prison inmates were interviewed and administered the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Ratings were made of each inmate based on the interview using a scale which yielded a measure of Interpersonal Maturity. The MMPI data showed that over one-half the population were in diagnostic categories that could be…