Dyscalculia is one of the barriers to learning for students with some special mental retardation needs. Students with intellectual disabilities may also have dyscalculia. In that sense, in learning mathematics, it is necessary to use various learning media. Related to this condition, the present study aims to determine the effect of the use of…

Comparison of social initiations by 18 children with autism and 13 verbally matched children with mental retardation found autistic children's social initiations were more ritualized and the retarded children's were more playful. Autistic initiation to peers was unrelated to severity of autism, but was related to cognitive skills, whereas retarded…

An independent analysis of the database for the Infant Health and Development Program, an intervention of home visits, parent meetings, and preschool education designed to prevent mental retardation in children, suggests that the program has not, as supporters have claimed, had meaningful and lasting effects on children's IQs. (SLD)

Sixty-two children (ages four and five) with mild mental retardation or learning disabilities were presented six cognitive tasks including two memory, three oddity, and a word definition task. Discriminant function analyses resulted in classification accuracy levels of 97% for children with mild mental retardation, 84% for children with learning…

The purpose of this study is to compare the assessment results of social skills of students with mental retardation by their teachers and mothers through relational model by using descriptive statistics. The research group in this study consisted of mothers and teachers of 562 children with mental retardation aged between 6 and 12 who enrolled in…

A study explored maternal response to the diagnosis of mental retardation in children using a focus group of six mothers. Findings identified four themes: differences between antenatal and postnatal diagnosis; a cycle of bereavement; issues relating to causation; and examples of poor interpersonal skills from medical personnel. (Contains…

Maladaptive behavior of 43 children (ages 4-19) with Prader-Willi syndrome was compared to children with Down syndrome and nonspecific mental retardation. The children with Prader-Willi showed more frequent and severe internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors. Certain maladaptive behaviors were distinctive to these children and…

The cumulative incidence of mental retardation in children born from 1976 through 1980 in Rochester, Minnesota, (n=5,919) was estimated from school and community medical records. Thirty children were classified with mental retardation, for a cumulative incidence of 9.1 per 1,000 by age 8. Gender differences in the incidence of mild and severe…

Computerized tomography (CT) of the brain was used to examine 27 infantile autistic children, 9 children with other kinds of childhood psychoses, 23 children with mental retardation, and 16 normal children. Gross abnormalities were seen in 26 percent of the autism cases. (Author/SEW)

Differences in motoric and instrumental activity of daily living skills were compared between 1,442 people with autism and 24,048 people with mental retardation. Autistic children, age 5-12, had better developed skills than mentally retarded children matched by age and intellectual level. With increasing age, more developed instrumental skills…

The effects of a cooperative learning program on the social acceptance of 51 children (ages 6-7) with moderate to severe mental retardation by children without disabilities were examined. Children without disabilities in the cooperative learning program gave the children with disabilities higher peer acceptance ratings, greater popularity indices,…

Problem-solving discussions were observed within families of children with mental retardation and multiple comparison groups (total N = 162 families). As expected, parents were more persistent and directive with their children who had mental retardation, but they also avoided negative exchanges with these children. These patterns did not spillover…

A study explored working memory (WM) capacity, WM task requirements, as well as effects between WM, skills, knowledge base, and intelligence in adults with mental retardation and children aged 3-6 years. Adults were better on measures reflecting skills and knowledge base. Children performed better in phonological and visuo-spatial WM tasks.…

Teachers completed the Connors' Teacher Rating Scale on 100 boys (ages 6-8) who either had attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mental retardation, both ADHD and mental retardation, or no disability. Children with mental retardation were generally more anxious than normal peers, but there were few differences between the normal IQ ADHD…

This study on the incidence of obesity among 20,031 children with mental retardation at special schools in Japan found a higher incidence than among children without mental retardation of the same age and a higher incidence among girls than boys and among older students than younger ones. (Author/DB)