Monograph of the American Association of Mental Deficiency最新文献

One of the most important findings of the study was that mentally retarded people can and are eager to provide complex and moving accounts of their experiences in returning to community life. Interviewers can be trained, through instruction, experience and role-playing, to elicit this information in a causal atmosphere which removes the risk of failure to answer properly and avoids the pressure to please the interviewer. The most important ingredients are patience and well constructed questions, without forced categories and without ambiguous or complex phrasing. The information collected provides in-depth and highly provocative insights into the experience of retarded persons returning to community life.

A sequence of studies used a transfer of stimulus control procedure to train severely and profoundly retarded people to follow verb-noun instructions and to perform correctly when given only a verbal label for an action or object. Procedures were developed and utilized for providing the subjects with strategies for successfully generalizing to untrained instructions. When training was initiated on more complex instructions involving color or size adjectives, all subjects had some difficulty in acquiring the conditional discriminations. Modifications in the training procedures resulted in most of the subjects learning to respond correctly. Many of the variables deemed critical in training instruction-following skills with such a population are discussed in detail based on the data presented. The implications for training expressive skills in such a population are also discussed.

Nonambulatory, profoundly mentally retarded (NPMR) individuals seldom have been studied as a distinct population. This investigation sought to describe the pshysical, etiological, and behavioral characteristics of NPMR children and adults and to evaluate the effects of intensive physical and social stimulation on their ongoing behavior. Sixteen NPMR subjects were studied for 2 1/2 years. All were PMR, bedridden, abnormally small, and unresponsive to external stimulation. Baseline data concerning developmental status, diurnal patterns of sleep and activity, behavior in a novel situation, ongoing ward behavior, and anthropometric measures were obtained. Subjects were highly variable in their responses to items from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, with overall performance below that of a normal six month old. Although subjects showed some diurnal pattern of sleep, they frequently fell asleep for short periods at random time during the day. In a novel situation subjects responded minimally to stimulus objects, or not at all. Typically, their ongoing ward behavior consisted of very low level activity, involving small peripheral limb movements, wandering or blinking eyes, mouthing or grimacing, and repetitive, reflexive types of patterns labeled "fixed action sequences." Experimental treatment consisted of three phases of daily stimulation. (1) Subjects were placed in an upright or elevated position in specially constructed "playpens." (2) Subjects were placed in "playpens" and many toys were presented. (3) Subjects were positioned in pairs so that direct physical contact was provided. Each phase resulted in changed behavioral profiles during treatment. Furthermore, all experimental subjects showed beneficial effects of treatment in their ongoing ward behavior, diurnal sleep patterns, Bayley performance, or response to novel situations. Implications of this research extend to understanding environmentally induced changes in neurological maturation and social development in individuals previously thought to be hopelessly devastated. The descriptive data are intended to provide a useful framework for further systematic research with NPMR populations.

A large number of retarded individuals exhibit repetitive and rhythmical movements of a highly stereotyped character. Common forms of these behaviors include body rocking, head nodding, hand waving, head banging and so on. Such behaviors are distinguished by their apparently maladaptive and excessive nature. The frequency of these bizarre responses in negatively correlated with measured intelligence. Stereotyped movements usually have their onsets early in the life of the individual and, in many cases, appear to have become functionally autonous. A variety of theories have been proposed to explain the onset and maintenance of stereotyped movements. None can be accepted to the exclusion of others and all have some empirical support. Problems of measurement are particularly difficult ones in this area. Of the various methods devised to suppress stereotyped movements, those based on principles of learning seem to be the most popular. However, generalization and durability of suppression effects generally have not been dealt with adequately. Much less attention has been paid to ecological analyses of the natural environments in which individuals exhibits stereotypies. A case can be made that our knowledge about the initiating conditions for these behaviors and subsequent effects on the natural environment is far less than perfect. A number of research directions are suggested.