Skin-picking is a type of self-injurious behavior involving the pulling, scratching, lancing, digging, or gouging of one's own body. It is associated with social impairment, and increased medical and mental health concerns. While there are several reports showing that skin-picking is common in individuals with developmental disabilities, knowledge…

Background: Kinship theory suggests that genomic imprinting could account for phenotypic behaviors that increase (in the case of Angelman syndrome) or decrease (for Prader-Willi syndrome) the drive to access social resources (adult contact) depending on the imprinting parent-of-origin. Difficult to manage behaviors, such as aggression that is…

This study examined socially appropriate and destructive behavior in unconstrained natural environments using a matching law analysis (MLA) of real time observational data. The participants were two school-age children and one adult with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities. Event lagged sequential analysis (SQA) provided the obtained rates of…

Prevalence of underweight and obesity were investigated in 282 mentally retarded persons living on the West Coast of Norway. Data collected in this survey suggest that people with severe mental retardation were more likely to be underweight and people with mild mental retardation were more likely to be obese. Compared to persons of average…