Book Description
A valuable compendium of current knowledge base on empirically tested treatments for individuals with severe developmental disabilities. Book contains 15 chapters by leading authorities in the field and is useful for practitioners and service providers who are not extensively trained in the principles of behavioral psychology or pharmacotherapy. ... Read more

Book Description
All newborns in the U.S. and in many parts of the world now have a couple of drops of blood drawn from their heels in order to test them for PKU and a host of other genetic disorders that can cause mental retardation or premature death if not treated immediately. This is the biography of the man best known for his development of newborn screening for PKU. Yet this was only one of his prodigious accomplishments. Tests were developed in Bob Guthrie's laboratory for more than 30 treatable disorders that cause mental retardation or death, giving the term "newborn screening" fresh meaning. He also waged a battle against lead poisoning long before the public or the medical community became concerned about this danger and was a member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility-an organization devoted to preventing nuclear war and o-posing nuclear weapons testing. ... Read more

Book Description
International Review of Research in Mental Retardation is an ongoing scholarly look at research into the causes, effects, classification systems, syndromes, etc. of mental retardation. Contributors come from wide-ranging perspectives, including genetics, psychology, education, and other health and behavioral sciences.

Volume 35 of the series offers chapters on theory and research, social cognition and social competence in children with Down Sydrome, the Flynn Effect and the role of IQ, remaining open to quantitative, qualitative and mixed-method designs, active support, child abuse, and the role of siblings of children with mental retardation.

The wide range of topics covered in these chapters make Volume 35 of the International Review of Research in Mental Retardation a particularly valuable resource for academic researchers in developmental and cognitive psychology, as well as those in neuropsychology.

*Provides the most recent scholarly research in the study of mental retardation
*A vast range of perspectives is offered, and many topics are covered
*An excellent resource for academic researchers ... Read more

Book Description
The role of families in mental retardation services has had a long and difficult history in America—from the early 1900s when parents were held responsible for their child's retardation and banned from treatment procedures to the present, when family presence is unquestionable in mental retardation services. Families and Mental Retardation chronicles parental involvement—or the surprising lack of—in mental retardation services from 1876 to 2000 through notable articles from two AAMR journals—the American Journal on Mental Retardation (AJMR) and Mental Retardation (MR). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Thorough at describing movement differences, despite tone
In order to understand the title of this book, one has to understand what the authors mean by "movement".They use the term to encompass not only physical movement, but thoughts, sensory processing, and emotions as well.They describe how in people who tend to accrue labels like "autism" and "mental retardation", as well as ones like "Parkinson's", "Tourette's", and "catatonia", the ability to initiate, regulate, and switch movements is often unusual compared to neurotypical people.

The authors do a thorough job of describing these things, which they refer to as movement differences, and how they work, using quotes from people with a variety of neurological conditions.I have used it to learn about myself as well as explain myself to others.It also importantly points out how people's prejudices about what these movement differences mean can result in impressions of lower competence or activity than actually exists.I use examples from this book to explain to people that if I am sitting and doing nothing, it does not always mean that I want to be sitting and doing nothing.Sometimes I want to stand up, but can't get my body in gear to do it without the proper cues.If I suddenly explode in frustration with such a situation, it obviously doesn't do to treat it as if I was just sitting there calmly and freaked out for no reason.I showed this book to a person who had referred to this behavior as a "mood swing", and she promptly understood that it was not a mood swing at all, but an understandable response to a frustrating situation involving movement.

The only qualms I have about this book have to do with the fact that, despite its protestations to the contrary, it still feels very medicalized.As an autistic person, I leave the book feeling like it is telling me what to think about myself, but doing it ever so gently, ever so nicely, ever so patronizingly, that I might not even notice it has done so were it not for the unsettling feeling around the edges.In that respect, it seems like one more set of people rearranging autistic people's lives according to a pattern they -- not always we -- see fit.This is more evident in the tone of the book than in anything specific.

The book is good at what the title says, though, which is describing movement differences.It does a clear, concise job with examples and pitfalls, with the understanding that it does not have all the answers.I found myself ignoring what I perceived as a condescending tone in order to get at the important information, of which there is plenty.An afterword brings forth a lot of important points to the validation controversy around facilitated communication.But even people who don't believe in facilitated communication will probably find some really useful information in this book if they are or know anyone with the above "labels".Just be aware that this is only one viewpoint from which we can be viewed, and that there are others that better capture other aspects of our lives.

enlightenment on a dark issue
This book outlines and associates autism withdescriptive and accurate clarity. The reasoning is logical and the examples are useful to an educator. The single most helpful thread is the ability the author possesses to communicate the feelings and prospective thatautistic people are processing.Ms.Donnallan realises that there are so many different manifestations of the condition and provides great insight into the autistic persons point of view. This is particularily beneficial to the instructor as a tool to aid progress, especially in a contruct classroom environment. With mainsteaming and full inclusion being the direction of educating autistic students this book is a bible for getting up to speed for the assigment of educating a special needs/autistic child and also gives good advice in socialising the reg ed students to the introduction of this new person into the classroom. The book shows understanding and enlightenment as a great leveler. ... Read more

Book Description
This new monograph presents the results of two in-depth studies on one of the most pressing issues in the field of mental retardation today -- recruitment and retention of direct support workers. With the economy booming and unemployment at a 20-year low, it is harder than ever to recruit and retain quality direct support workers -- those who have the most impact on people with mental retardation. The studies in this book examine turnover among newly hired direct support workers through both facility-level and individual-employee-level analyses. The facility-level study describes participating homes, examines turnover rates, and identifies variables associated with turnover. The individual-level study describes individual staff characteristics, and identifies individual and job-related factors associated with turnover decisions. The book concludes with a discussion of suggestions and strategies that can be applied to help reduce the turnover rate and keep quality direct support employees. Staff Recruitment and Retention is a must-have book for all administrators, program supervisors, policy makers, educators, and anyone else interested in mental retardation. ... Read more

Book Description
How should we think about the mentally retarded human being and how should he or she be cared for? These are the questions Carlo Pietzner addresses in this important work. Topics discussed include the origin and elements of the anthroposophic approach to curative education, the curative teacher, and inner conditions for curative educational work. ... Read more

Book Description
"We're People First" describes the course of social and emotional development in children and adults with mental retardation. The book is based on empirical research exploring the effects of cognitive delays and "socialization for imcompetence" on normal developmental milestones. Empirical information is supplemented and enriched by the reflections of individuals with mental retardation. The book begins with an overview of social and emotional development in intellectually normal persons and a discussion of how this process is affected by the experience of mental retardation. Subsequent chapters describe the changing relationships between persons with retardation and their families throughout the lifespan; with friendships and social skills; self-esteem, emotional coping skills, and stigmas; and major issues of adult life, such as work, sexuality, marriage, and parenthood. Chapters include specific recommendations for how professionals and family members might help to improve the social and emotional functioning of individuals with mental retardation. The final section of the book focuses on mental health concerns, describing the nature and causes of emotional disturbance in persons with mental retardation and outlining resources for intervention and treatment. This book will be invaluable to educators, mental health profesionals, vocational counselors, and the families of persons with developmental disabilities. ... Read more

Book Description
Research on language and communication development and intervention in persons with mental retardation has been conducted at a fast and furious pace during the last two decades. Past attempts to summarize this research have been rather restricted, focusing on a single, narrowly defined substantive domain such as lexical development, or of a single etiology such as Down Syndrome.

This volume, in contrast, presents a critical, integrative review of research and theory on language development and processing across all domains and a variety of etiologies. In addition, many previous attempts to review portions of this research have failed to consider the research within the context of current theory and data from developmental psycholinguistics and linguistics. A major contribution of this book is the emphasis on relevant work outside of mental retardation for understanding and treating the language and communication problems of persons with mental retardation. Finally, this book is comprehensive and up-to-date across all the areas of language covered including appropriate introductory material in linguistics and psychology -- discussions of the innateness, cognition-first and motherese views of normal language acquisition. In addition, the authors' extensive bibliography is valuable in and of itself to any serious student or professional in the area.
... Read more

Book Description
Sound, tested methods for enhancing parents' teaching skills. ... Read more

Book Description

Engaging in sex, becoming parents, raising children: these are among the most personal decisions we make, and for people with mental retardation, these decisions are consistently challenged, regulated, and outlawed. This book is a comprehensive study of the American legal doctrines and social policies, past and present, that have governed procreation and parenting by persons with mental retardation. It argues persuasively that people with retardation should have legal authority to make their own decisions.

Despite the progress of the normalization movement, which has moved so many people with mental retardation into the mainstream since the 1960s, negative myths about reproduction and child rearing among this population persist. Martha Field and Valerie Sanchez trace these prejudices to the eugenics movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They show how misperceptions have led to inconsistent and discriminatory outcomes when third parties seek to make birth control or parenting decisions for people with mental retardation. They also explore the effect of these decisions on those they purport to protect. Detailed, thorough, and just, their book is a sustained argument for reform of the legal practices and social policies it describes.

Customer Reviews (3)

Inspiring and helpful
This book is fabulous and it is one of a kind. I found it helpful as a guardian often faced with ethical dilemmas about when I should decide and when "my ward" should. But the book is also written for doctors, policymakers, lawyers and judges, and parents -- in fact anyone interested in the assimilation of "the retarded" into the rest of the population.
It is actually fun reading and set up so you can skip the parts less relevant to you.It made me cry a couple of times as well as giving me many ideas -- and increasing my confidence in my judgments.READ IT.It will surely affect you profoundly in one way or another.

Romance & Retardation
While this closely argued and exhaustively researched book focuses on the reproductive legal rights of our retarded adults, its real core is to ask: Why should retarded people be deprived of the same rights the rest of us enjoy simply because they are retarded.
The book punctures the veil of silence around our automatic presumptions about these people that underlies our assumptions of the necessity and goodness of paternalistic regulation.
It does this by honing in on the most emotionally arousing aspect of the question.Asking why our retarded fellow citizens can be prevented from having sex and from having children brings us up against our deepest prejudices.
The book caused me to reconfigure my opinions in these areas in what feels to me a more useful perspective of the lives of these people, some of whom are my patients.I think it is a must read for anyone involved in any aspect of the care of our retarded population.

Controversial and convincing
This book puts forth a compelling thesis: The mentally retarded should have full rights to manage their own sexual and reproductive lives. The idea sounds good, but most people would quail at its full implications. Should a severely retarded 15-year-old be allowed to bear a child? What about situations where parents fear a daughter might suffer from rapein an institution? Should they have the right to have their daughter sterilized? A Harvard law professor, Field does not dodge the hard questions. She addresses them and forces a re-thinking of conventional ideas about who should make decisions for others and why. Field writes with such authority and conviction that at the end you are likely to be persuaded that human rights apply to the retarded in ways you never imagined. Analytical and systematic, the book is rooted in a deep knowledge of the law and a concern for the shaping of social policy. It is a must-read for those who face decisions about the retarded, either within their families or in the public arena. Those concerned with human rightswill also find their minds, and perhaps their causes, expanded when they read this book. ... Read more