Comparative Behavioral Ratings of Parents with Severe Mentally Retarded, Special Learning Disability, and Normal Children

Abstract

This investigation was concerned with similarities and differences in the perceptions of parents with normal children, learning disabled children, and severe mentally retarded children. All three groups of parents were sent the same 30-item behavioral rating scale and the same set of instructions. The rating scale contained three types of items: items indicating behavioral or emotional disturbances, items indicating possible neurological disturbance, and items with little or no diagnostic value. The return was approximately 98 percent. A specific learning disability syndrome emerged from the responses of the parents with learning disabled children. Several variables indicating possible neurological dysfunction and/or emotional disturbance also emerged from the ratings of the learning disabled parents.