Robert H. Bruininks

Prevalence and Implications of Maladaptive Behaviors and Dual Diagnosis in Residential and Other Service Programs

Maladaptive behaviors among mentally retarded people present service problems that act a serious barriers to their personal development and to opportunities for social integration. Given the seriousness of this issue, there is clearly a need to describe the extent and nature of problems or maladaptive behaviors, including the incidence of dual diagnosis of mental retardation and mental illness, among retarded individuals. This concern has often been expressed by service personnel in studies that assess their training needs (Bruininks, Thurlow, Nelson, & Davis, 1984). It is also evident from numerous research reports over a 50-year period that serious maladaptive behaviors among mentally retarded people limit their development of adaptive skills and their integration into schools, families, residential placements, employment, and social settings.

MOTOR PROFICIENCY OF LEARNING DISABLED AND NONDISABLED STUDENTS

The motor proficiency of 55 learning disabled and 55 nondisabled students was compared on a comprehensive battery of motor-skills tests. Learning disabled students performed significantly lower than nondisabled students on measures of fine motor skills and on measures of gross motor skills. Their greatest deficiencies were on tasks requiring body equilibrium, controlled fine visual-motor movements, and bilateral coordination of movements involving different parts of the body. All of these areas include complex motor patterns that require the integration of visual and kinesthetic senses with motor responses. Implications of these findings for the development of motor training programs and for future research are discussed.

Social Status of Hearing Impaired Children in Regular Classrooms

This study examined the peer status and the self perceived peer status of 15 first and second grade hearing impaired children enrolled in regular classrooms. Subjects included four children with mild to moderate hearing losses and 11 children with severe to profound hearing losses who were full time hearing aid users. Three sociometric tests were used to assess the peer acceptance as well as the self perceived peer status for both normally hearing and hearing impaired students. Results indicated that the hearing impaired children received a higher degree of social acceptance from normally hearing peers than reported in previous studies. They were also as perceptive of their own social status as normally hearing children.

Meeting the Challenge of Transition Service Planning through Improved Interagency Cooperation

The improvement of transition services through effective management strategies in service planning and coordination is proposed. Current barriers to effective service planning and coordination are discussed. Included among these are conflicting policy goals, eligibility criteria, funding patterns across agencies, and an inconsistent national policy. Three major approaches to overcoming barriers to effective service planning are proposed. All require that present approaches to interagency service planning and coordination of services be changed.

Physical and Motor Development of Retarded Persons

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the physical and motor development of retarded persons. A few studies suggest that the structure of motor abilities among the samples of retarded persons is similar to that of the nonretarded persons. However, the factor structure appears less differentiated among the mildly retarded school students than among the samples of the nonretarded subjects. This speculation is based upon the results of selected factor analytic studies and the generally higher correlations found between intelligence test scores and measures of motor proficiency, with retarded as compared to nonretarded subjects. Retarded children and adults have been consistently found markedly inferior to the nonretarded people on measures of physical development, gross motor, and fine motor abilities. As the severity of intellectual defect increases, motor function correspondingly decreases. Furthermore, deficits in the performance of the retarded compared to the nonretarded subjects become progressively larger with age, although data to support this conclusion have been derived from cross-sectional rather than longitudinal studies. This chapter describes and interprets the studies on the physical and motor development of the retarded people. It introduces the basic terminology and results of selected factor analytic studies on the structure of motor abilities identified, within the samples of both retarded and nonretarded subjects.

AUDITORY AND VISUAL PERCEPTUAL SKILLS RELATED TO THE READING PERFORMANCE OF DISADVANTAGED BOYS

To determine the nature and magnitude of the relationships between selected auditory and visual perceptual abilities and reading performance of 105 disadvantaged boys analyses assessed (a) the magnitude of the relationships, (b) the extent to which the relationships were linear, and (c) the extent to which the correlations were independent of verbal intelligence. Relationships between perceptual skills and reading performance were low to moderate in magnitude and did not depart significantly from linearity. The correlations between the two attributes decreased substantially when the influence of verbal intelligence was held constant. It was concluded that auditory and visual perceptual skills appear more related to the acquisition of early reading skills than to their subsequent elaboration.

Is Supported Employment Cost-Effective in Minnesota?

This paper reports on the application of a benefit-cost accounting framework to evaluate the economic outcomes of supported employment in Minnesota. Data were collected on the costs and economic outcomes of 1,892 individuals being served in 11 supported-employment agencies offering programs in habilitation training, on-site employment, and community-based group and individual supported employment. From these data net benefits and benefit-cost ratios were estimated to explain possible efficiency effects resulting from the programs. The results reported in this study generally support the policy assertion that supported-employment programs yield financial benefits for society and taxpayers, as well as individuals with disabilities.

Dropouts and Dropout Programs Implications for Special Education

With the goal of achieving a better understanding of the nature of the dropout problem for students in special education, this review focuses first on the literature related to the dropout phenomenon in general education. The issues addressed are (a) consequences of dropping out, (b) definitions of dropouts and calculations of dropout rates, (c) characteristics of general education dropouts and their schools, and (d) intervention programs directed toward general education dropouts. The review further examines the literature on students in special education who drop out of school, including (a) overall dropout rates and rates by handicapping conditions, (b) characteristics of dropouts who have received special education services, and (c) outcomes for school dropouts. The paper concludes by discussing implications for research and service programs that can address the dropout problem in special education.

Adaptive Behavior and Mental Retardation

Adaptive behavior and mental retardation are addressed in terms of their historical relationship, current definitions and concepts, and issues related to structure and content. The role of community environmental factors in the adaptive behavior of mentally retarded persons is examined and the implications of using adaptive behavior measures is presented through an illustrative case study. It is argued that there are still critical needs for the development of sound theories and models of adaptive behavior to guide future research and practice, especially in the design of interventions to enhance the adjustment and opportunities for people with disabilities.

Components of Personal Competence and Community Integration for Persons with Mental Retardation in Small Residential Programs.

This study identifies components of personal competence and community adjustment in a national sample of persons with mental retardation living in residential facilities of six or fewer residents. Factor analysis of 65 variables yielded an 8 principal component solution that accounted for approximately half the total variance in the observed variables (49%). The eight identified components of personal competence and community adjustment were labeled (1) Self Care and Functional Personal Living Skills, (2) Community Living Skills, (3) Home Living Skills, (4) Problem Behavior, (5) Community Training Goals and Objectives, (6) Recreation/Leisure Activity, (7) Family Contact/Relationships, and (8) Community Assimilation and Acceptance. The implications of reducing potentially hundreds of indicators of personal competence and community adjustment into relatively few broad internally consistent composite constructs are discussed.