Historical Perspective The plight of individuals with developmental disabilities has been dependent on the customs and beliefs of the era and the culture or locale. In ancient Greece and Rome, infanticide was a common practice. In Sparta, for example, neonates were examined by a state council of inspectors. If they suspected that the child was defective, the infant was thrown from a cliff to it...

In a cross-validation of results from L. O. Graue et al. (2007), standard psychological assessment instruments, as well as tests of neurocognitive and psychiatric feigning, were administered under standard instructions to 24 participants diagnosed with mild mental retardation (MR) and 10 demographically matched community volunteers (CVH). A 2nd group of 25 community volunteers was instructed to...

Sixty two inmates of a children's home of Lucknow City were examined by using Hindi Adaptation of Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale-Form LM (1960) and a five point rating scale for aggression. A high proportion (69.4%) of the inmates had one or other psychiatric problem. Mild mental retardation (I.Q. 50-70) was most common (41.9%). Intellectual level was correlated with present age, duration of...

To the Congress of the United States: It is my intention to send shortly to the Congress a message pertaining to this Nation's most urgent needs in the area of health improvement. But two health problems—because they are of such critical size and tragic impact, and because their susceptibility to public action is so much greater than the attention they have received-are deserving of a wholly ne...

Rett syndrome (RS; MIM 312750) is a severe neurological disorder affecting exclusively females. Its prevalence is about 1 in 10,000 female births, and it is a prominent cause of profound mental handicap in women. RS is caused by mutations in the X-linked methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene. These mutations were initially thought to be lethal in males. However, MECP2 mutations are now freq...

This study examined the effects of two training methods (interest-based method vs. traditional method) in improving independent problem solving performance of students with mild mental retardation representing three cultural backgrounds (African-American, European-American and Nigerian) as measured by Edeh Scale of Interpersonal Problem Situations. Students were randomly assigned to one of the ...

the hereditary ataxias are a group of genetically defined neurological diseases which are characterized by heterogeneous clinical presentations. ataxia is defined as imbalance and lack of coordination. mental retardation associated with ataxia has been reported in some of the known and recently identified syndromes. in this review, we describe some known and novel genes that cause familial ment...