In this article, we demonstrate the potential of machine learning approaches as inductive analytic tools for expanding our current evidence base for policy making and practice that affects people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Using data from the National Core Indicators In-Person Survey (NCI-IPS), a nationally validated…

Research has shown that different maladaptive behavior categories may be maintained by different contingencies. We examined whether behavior categories or behavior topographies determine functional properties. The "Questions about Behavioral Function" with its five subscales ("Attention", "Escape", "Nonsocial", "Physical", and "Tangible") was…

Relative prevalence of stereotyped behaviors was studied with 246 children and adults with developmental disabilities. Two staff members completed a 54-item checklist assessing stereotyped behaviors, abnormal focused affections, compulsions, rigidity, savant skills, and defensiveness. Factor analyses produced weak evidence for a general stereotypy…

Three databases were analyzed to investigate the range and frequency of terms in the field of mental retardation/developmental disabilities. The most prevalent term over the last 15 years was "mentally retarded." The terms "cognitive impairment" and "developmental disabilities" have been used more frequently in the last five years. (Author/CR)

Developed a measure of severity of mental retardation in adults, the Level of Activity in Profound/severe Mental Retardation, scale using Rasch analysis as a guide to item selection. Results from using the scale to rate 146 adults with mental retardation support the use of the scale for classification of severe and profound retardation. (SLD)

It is argued the proposed definition of dyslexia is restricted to developmental dyslexia in which a student struggles to learn to read and does not apply to acquired dyslexia in which a previously normal reader loses reading functions. The need for classification schemes for defining specific learning disabilities is emphasized. (Contains…

An evaluation was made of the empirical validity of the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely Handicapped-II (DASH-II) with 51 individuals with severe/profound mental retardation, some of whom were also diagnosed with autism, and controls. The Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorder subscale of the DASH-II was internally consistent and just as…

This article discusses using the term "general learning disorder" instead of "mental retardation." It addresses the offensiveness of the current label, discusses ingredients needed in a more appropriate diagnostic term, and offers a proposed grouping of developmental disabilities based on cognitive ability, language ability, physical ability, and…

This commentary discusses whether the American Association on Mental Retardation should change its name. It argues that the term "mental retardation" should become an historical artifact of the evolution of our thinking about children and adults with developmental disabilities. The plurality of the term "developmental…