Biomaterial Database

Retention of symbolic communications skills by severely mentally retarded persons. 1985

M A Romski, and R A Sevcik, and D M Rumbaugh

The nonspeech symbol vocabularies of five severely mentally retarded persons were assessed 18 months after the completion of a longitudinal computer-keyboard symbol acquisition study. These individuals retained a mean of 83% of their comprehension vocabularies and 70% of their production vocabularies without systematic maintenance teaching on the learned symbols. Interviews with special-education and living unit staff members corroborated this result and described the ways in which the subjects used their conversation boards in their everyday environment.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D008568	Memory	Complex mental function having four distinct phases: (1) memorizing or learning, (2) retention, (3) recall, and (4) recognition. Clinically, it is usually subdivided into immediate, recent, and remote memory.
D008607	Intellectual Disability	Subnormal intellectual functioning which originates during the developmental period. This has multiple potential etiologies, including genetic defects and perinatal insults. Intelligence quotient (IQ) scores are commonly used to determine whether an individual has an intellectual disability. IQ scores between 70 and 79 are in the borderline range. Scores below 67 are in the disabled range. (from Joynt, Clinical Neurology, 1992, Ch55, p28)	Disability, Intellectual,Idiocy,Mental Retardation,Retardation, Mental,Deficiency, Mental,Intellectual Development Disorder,Mental Deficiency,Mental Retardation, Psychosocial,Deficiencies, Mental,Development Disorder, Intellectual,Development Disorders, Intellectual,Disabilities, Intellectual,Disorder, Intellectual Development,Disorders, Intellectual Development,Intellectual Development Disorders,Intellectual Disabilities,Mental Deficiencies,Mental Retardations, Psychosocial,Psychosocial Mental Retardation,Psychosocial Mental Retardations,Retardation, Psychosocial Mental,Retardations, Psychosocial Mental
D012153	Retention, Psychology	The persistence to perform a learned behavior (facts or experiences) after an interval has elapsed in which there has been no performance or practice of the behavior.	Psychological Retention,Retention (Psychology),Psychology Retention,Retention, Psychological
D003143	Communication Aids for Disabled	Equipment that provides mentally or physically disabled persons with a means of communication. The aids include display boards, typewriters, cathode ray tubes, computers, and speech synthesizers. The output of such aids includes written words, artificial speech, language signs, Morse code, and pictures.	Augmentative and Alternative Communications Systems,Communication Aids for Handicapped,Communication Boards,Speech Synthesizers,Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf,TDD,TTY Telephone,Text Telecommunication,Text Telecommunication Devices,Text Telephone,Communication Board,Speech Synthesizer,Synthesizer, Speech,Synthesizers, Speech,TTY Telephones,Telecommunication Device, Text,Telecommunication Devices, Text,Telecommunication, Text,Telecommunications, Text,Text Telecommunication Device,Text Telecommunications,Text Telephones
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328	Adult	A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available.	Adults
D012656	Self-Help Devices	Devices, not affixed to the body, designed to help persons having musculoskeletal or neuromuscular disabilities to perform activities involving movement.	Assistive Devices,Assistive Technology,Assistive Device,Assistive Technologies,Device, Assistive,Device, Self-Help,Devices, Assistive,Devices, Self-Help,Self Help Devices,Self-Help Device,Technologies, Assistive,Technology, Assistive