Manual of Diagnosis and Professional Practice in Mental Retardation

This manual serves as a consolidated source of major findings from psychological science and practice in the field of mental retardation. Chapters in this volume address such broadly-ranging topics as adaptive behaviour, neuropsychology, biological factors in prevention and treatment, cultural considerations, sexuality, and interdisciplinary collaboration in service delivery. Changes in the way mental retardation is defined have mainly reflected changing conceptions of how it should be measured. One important goal of this book is to institute a workable definition that provides guidelines for recognising and classifying mental retardation on the basis of psychological assessment. The standards and practices highlighted in this volume should serve as a starting point for further advances as well as for a more profound understanding of the developmental and behavioural processes that are involved in mental retardation and other disorders of human development.