BEHAVIOR DIFFERENCES IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN MEASURED BY A NEW BEHAVIOR RATING SCALE
A. A. STRAUSS M. D.1, and
NEWELL C. KEPHART PH. D.1
1 The Wayne County Training School, Northville, Michigan.
The standardization of this scale is not considered to be adequate. The number of cases is too small and the sampling is limited to the high grade moron and borderline levels of intelligence and to children in an institutional environment.
It was possible, however, to differentiate two groups of mentally retarded children, the one of which showed evidence of brain damage and the other of which showed no evidence of such damage, by means of this scale.
The scale shows the exogenous group to be erratic, uncoordinated, uncontrolled, uninhibited and socially unaccepted.
This study suggests that behavior problems occurring in endogenous retarded children are completely apart from the commonly accepted picture of organic behavior.
The question of the further differentiation of psychopathic behavior in children is a question for future research.
