Several studies identifying establishing operations for negatively reinforced behavior among nine adults with developmental disabilities are reported. After verifying through functional analysis that self-injurious behavior was maintained by escape, some establishing properties of task demands were investigated by systematically altering task…

This analysis of the descriptive information on subjects provided by 266 research reports on autism and developmental disabilities found a continuing trend toward more complete descriptive information; increased use of control or comparison groups; less research in biological, physiological, and neurological areas; and more research in the social,…

A table lists the number of individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities in licensed residential settings with one to six residents and the percent of each state's service recipients in such settings in 1995. A brief discussion notes that almost half of all persons in licensed settings were in homes with six or fewer residents.…

Administered the Stanford-Binet IV and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) to 31 subjects, ages 11-17 years, who were previously identified as functioning in the range of mild mental retardation. Correlations among scores on the tests were significant. The Stanford-Binet IV Composite IQ was higher than identified in the…

This study assessed the criterion validity of the photographic adaptive communication device (ACD) used in Oklahoma to interview individuals with developmental disabilities receiving services. The back-translation process identified photographs that were frequently incorrectly identified resulting in revision of the ACD for greater validity.…

A comprehensive national portrait of employment and income status of adults with developmental disabilities was estimated through secondary analyses of the 1990/91 Survey of Income and Program Participation. Results indicate that the majority of adults with developmental disabilities had very limited economic resources, even when earnings from…

This article reviews basic literature on behavioral pharmacology and integrates these findings with existing applied research regarding psychotropic medication. Suggestions are provided for improving research practices, increasing the diversity of people in decision-making regarding medication use, and developing consumer-friendly strategies for…

This study evaluated an hierarchical intervention with four young children with significant developmental delays. Picture cues and correspondence training were provided at three levels of intrusiveness. Two children required only less intrusive levels of instruction while the other two required the entire intervention package to reach criterion.…

A great deal is known about the effects of positive reinforcement on response acquisition; by contrast, much less research has been conducted on contingencies applied to errors. We examined the effects of response repetition as an error-correction procedure on the sight-word reading performance of 11 adults with developmental disabilities. Study 1…

Children who experienced autism, mental retardation, and language disorders; and, children in a clinical control group were shown photographs of human female, orangutan, and canine (boxer) faces expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and a neutral expression. For each species of faces, children were asked to identify the happy, sad, angry,…

This project examined whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived requesting skills in 3 adults with disabilities. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using pictures; they were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and between dictated names and…

Functional communication training (FCT) is a widely used treatment for individuals with developmental disabilities who exhibit severe behavior problems. One inherent challenge of employing FCT as a treatment in the community is that reinforcement for appropriate communication cannot always be immediate or even possible in some circumstances. Of…

In this project we examined access to health care by individuals with developmental disabilities in Kansas from low income populations and from minority backgrounds. Four criteria for determining access were employed: availability, accessibility, affordability, and appropriateness of care. Factors that pose barriers and that facilitate access are…

There is an impending crisis in long-term care for people with developmental disabilities. The demand for care will likely outpace the supply for decades to come. Factors, such as limited existing long-term care resources, increased life expectancy for people with developmental disabilities, changing family demographics, legal actions, and…

Waiting lists for people with intellectual disabilities who seek services from Mental Retardation (MR) or Development Disability (DD) systems are a very visible problem across the country and have forced people with disabilities, families and caregivers to respond by pressing their states into action. People living at home with their parents or…