The economic and political factors maintaining the large numbers of residents with developmental disabilities in public institutions are reviewed from the perspective of Minnesota. Alternatives are presented to lessen the economical and political impact of institutional closures, in order to advance the process of deinstitutionalization.…

Data from surveys of 2,071 facilities providing vocational services to adults with developmental disabilities were used to analyze: employment placement patterns in sheltered, supported, competitive, or transitional settings; employment retention rates; occupational categories; rehabilitation costs; integration with nondisabled coworkers; effects…

The process of toilet training a boy with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome is addressed. Emphasized are the joint effort of the teacher and parents, the frustration at the seeming lack of progress, the use of rewards and "positive practices," and the ultimate success of the boy's toilet training program. (JDD)

Aimed to determine to what degree newborns' auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABRs) predict delayed or impaired development during the first year. When 93 infants' ABRs were evaluated at three, six, and nine months, newborn ABR was moderately sensitive for detecting hearing impairment and more sensitive than other indicators in detecting…

Focuses on one developmentally disabled child's experiences at a summer camp for nondisabled children. Describes the strategies implemented at Lourdes Camp (New York) to provide individualized support. Discusses the benefits to nondisabled children of normal interactions with a disabled child. Includes six references. (SV)

Two reasons why treatment recommendations for children with developmental disabilities are more often based on usual practice, expert opinion, and belief than scientific evidence are the lack of a conceptual framework that accommodates data across multiple disciplines and multiple dimensions of the disabling process and determination of outcome…

Admissions of 370 people with developmental disabilities to a community hospital were examined to determine how coordinated care affected length of stay and hospital charges. The coordinated care admissions stayed less time and had lower charges compared to admissions who received their routine care by community physicians. (Author/SW)

Describes a program designed to increase community involvement of a man with developmental disabilities who was refusing to go on outings following recent invasive medical procedures. The intervention phases involved brief presentations that portrayed peers or the subject himself going on outings. Illustrates the utility of peer- and self-modeling…

Meeting the challenge of providing supported living for people with developmental disabilities calls for new relationships among people receiving support, those providing support, and families. The focus should be on assisting people with developmental disabilities to establish a sense of place, security of place, and effective personalized…

An evaluation of a successful summer camp for youth with developmental disabilities (Camp Horizons) identifies practices that should work well in other youth programs. The natural, personalized setting favors worthwhile relationships with satisfying human bonds. The ecological evaluation approach is also explored. (SLD)

This paper discusses a model crisis intervention program for community-based individuals with developmental disabilities and mental illness, featuring cross-system access between existing services and emphasis on staff training. Outcomes of the Rochester, New York, program reveal that 69% of 267 individuals referred to the program required only 1…

Fifty-four adults with developmental disabilities living independently in three different communities were interviewed about their social interactions during seven consecutive days. The study concluded that a satisfactory level of integration was not occurring when judged by subjects' interactions with persons without disabilities. (Author/DB)

The applicability of two reinforcer assessment procedures to children with developmental disabilities and visual impairments was evaluated. Greater differentiation between stimuli occurred with a choice procedure than with a preference procedure. Measurement of compliance and responding rate in adaptive skill training confirmed that the choice…

Explores the dissociation between the performance by children with autism on false belief tasks, on which they do poorly, and false photograph, false map, and false drawing tasks, on which they do well. Suggesting domain specificity in the development of representational system, the results supported the modularity of theory of mind and the…

This paper provides a history of the development of the DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III, Revised) section on pervasive developmental disorders. It describes the process by which the text and criteria for "Autistic Disorder" and "Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" were decided and gives…