Deinstitutionalization of Persons with Mental Retardation: Behavioral Outcomes

1989 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheryl A. Larson ◽  
K. Charlie Lakin

This article examines experimental/contrast group and longitudinal studies of the changes in adaptive behavior associated with moving from state institutions to small (15 or fewer people) community living arrangements for persons with mental retardation. It reviews 15 research reports, including 18 separate studies with 1358 subjects that met specific criterion for design and recency. It summarizes outcomes in the areas of overall adaptive behavior, seven specific domains of adaptive behavior, and overall problem behavior. All eight of the experimental/contrast group studies, and 5 of the 10 longitudinal studies reported statistically significant improvement in either overall adaptive behavior or in the basic self-help/domestic domain associated with movement to the community. All 18 studies reported at least some improvement for groups moving from institutions to community living arrangements.

Author(s):  
Alireza Soltani ◽  
Etienne Koechlin

AbstractThe real world is uncertain, and while ever changing, it constantly presents itself in terms of new sets of behavioral options. To attain the flexibility required to tackle these challenges successfully, most mammalian brains are equipped with certain computational abilities that rely on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). By examining learning in terms of internal models associating stimuli, actions, and outcomes, we argue here that adaptive behavior relies on specific interactions between multiple systems including: (1) selective models learning stimulus–action associations through rewards; (2) predictive models learning stimulus- and/or action–outcome associations through statistical inferences anticipating behavioral outcomes; and (3) contextual models learning external cues associated with latent states of the environment. Critically, the PFC combines these internal models by forming task sets to drive behavior and, moreover, constantly evaluates the reliability of actor task sets in predicting external contingencies to switch between task sets or create new ones. We review different models of adaptive behavior to demonstrate how their components map onto this unifying framework and specific PFC regions. Finally, we discuss how our framework may help to better understand the neural computations and the cognitive architecture of PFC regions guiding adaptive behavior.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chwen-Yng Su ◽  
Yueh-Hsien Lin ◽  
Yuh-Yih Wu ◽  
Ching-Chiang Chen

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Jyothi ◽  
Sudhakar Venukapalli

How do the children with mild and moderate mental retardation recognize and comprehend the external reality? How do they communicate their abilities of representation and exhibit their competencies? What kind of Practical skills do they possess? With what practical skills do they interact? These are some of the seminal questions in the contemporary discourse on children with mental retardation. This study is an attempt to grapple with some of the above questions, related to the practical adaptive behaviour of children with mental retardation. In social and domestic lives, the practical skills are important, and this article is to study the comparison of various domains of mentally retarded individuals with different degrees of retardation such as mild, moderate, severe, and profound. To carry out this research work a sample of 60 children with mental retardation are randomly selected, from two sub-populations i.e., mild and moderate children with mental retardation. This article mainly focuses on the practical adaptive behavior of children with mild and moderate mental retardation to their level of mental retardation, gender, level of the parent's education, and years of schooling. This research helped us to identify certain gaps in the existing knowledge. It was found based on the conducted research that the majority of the children with mild mental retardation exhibited practical behavior most frequently by participating in most of the classroom practical activities. It is also very important for us to realize that these children whose exceptionalities and disabilities can also be helped with good suggestions so, that they can lead a happy and productive life. From the analysis and testing of the hypothesis, it is evident that the variable 'gender' does not have any influence on children's practical skills. Irrespective of various backgrounds both the boys and girls are equally getting involved in the different practical activities, this may be the reason for the absence of gender discrimination in this context. It can be concluded that children with mental retardation exhibit delays in all aspects of practical skills management compared to non-retarded children and it is felt that if some verbal and non-verbal prompts are provided, these children can manage practical acts well in familiar situations. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0776/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith F. Widaman ◽  
Jane S. Thompson ◽  
Daniel J. Reschly ◽  
Gary N. Siperstein

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document