Assessment of Understanding by People Manifesting Mental Retardation: A Preliminary Report

Coles, E. M.; Freitas, Tomás T.; Tweed, Roger G.

doi:10.2466/pms.1996.83.1.187

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This study provides evidence of comprehension improvements as a result of the PPD intervention as measured by story retell (Coles et al, 1996). Both Leanne and Celia showed improvements from baseline to intervention ranging from providing no comments during baseline to making relevant statements about the stories following intervention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

The Picture Plus Discussion Intervention: Text Access for High School Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

Shurr

Taber‐Doughty²

2016

Focus Autism Other Dev Disabl

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Literacy is a critical tool for functioning in everyday life (Downing, 2005). The ability to decode and comprehend text afford an individual multiple benefits including perceived competence, increased control over life decisions, opportunities for independence, tools for organization, and access to learning and leisure-related content (Downing, 2005). Literacy may also act as a tool to connect individuals to society and culture (Browder et al., 2009). Students with moderate and severe intellectual disability often experience limited access to such benefits (Downing, 2005; Erickson & Koppenhaver, 1995). Their difficulties related to generalization, memory, motivation, and adaptive behavior can make accessing the literature difficult (Browder et al., 2009; Downing, 2005; Kliewer & Landis, 1999). In addition, low expectations and insufficient literacy instruction and instructional materials are obstacles to access for this population of students (Browder et al., 2009). Access to the literature is important for high school students with intellectual disability and can contribute not only to opportunities on a daily basis (Downing, 2005) and access to general education curriculum (Browder, Spooner, Wakeman, Trela, & Baker, 2006), but also to post-school opportunities and activities such as employment (Benz, Yovanoff, & Doren, 1997), leisure, and independent living (Browder et al., 2009). Another benefit is access to concepts and content that promotes inclusion within the community (Browder et al., 2009). However, typical age-appropriate texts are often inaccessible for high school students with intellectual disability due to difficulty in reading skills (Browder et al., 2009). Recently, Browder et al. (2009) described access to literacy in two distinctive strands: reading and listening. Reading access is described as skills in text decoding and comprehension. Students with significant disabilities are able to learn literacy-related skills; however, investigations often highlight a gap between reading ability achieved and the reading level of material appropriate for the student's age (e.g., Waugh, Fredrick, & Alberto, 2009). Read alouds or shared stories were found to be successful as a means of access for students with moderate or severe intellectual disability (Browder et al., 2007; Skotko, Koppenhaver, & Erickson, 2004).

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

The Picture Plus Discussion Intervention: Text Access for High School Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

Shurr

Taber‐Doughty²

2016

Focus Autism Other Dev Disabl

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Further, because psychometric instruments are to be interpreted probabilistically while fitness is a deterministic issue (i.e., either fit or unfit), probabilistic measurement approaches are ''inappropriate.'' They proceed to criticize the development of their own instrument (Coles, Freitas, & Tweed, 1996) for assessing fitness in individuals suffering from mental retardation as it reflects a unitary focus on understanding. They comment on the lack of attention paid to the specific deficits of mentally retarded individuals in that they often learn to reply with stock answers to facilitate social interac-tions but have very little understanding of the concepts that they articulate.…”

Section: Recent Psychological and Psychiatricmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fitness/Competency to Stand Trial: A Conceptual Overview, Review of Existing Instruments, and Cross-Validation of the Nussbaum Fitness Questionnaire

Nussbaum¹,

Hancock²,

Turner³

et al. 2007

Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Competency to Stand Trial or Fitness to Stand Trial (FST) is the most frequent referral issue facing forensic mental health professionals (FMHPs) and consumes considerable scarce resources in the process. This article summarizes minimalist and expanded legal approaches to FST and briefly describes three instruments developed by FMHPs to structure FST assessments. We then present evidence supporting the validity of the Nussbaum Fitness Questionnaire for efficiently screening individuals for fitness and blatant or subtle malingering. The paper ends with a number of suggestions to optimize use of these instruments within the current set of forensic mental health practices. Specifically, it is suggested that use of the screening instrument could reliably eliminate up to 70% of current referrals for complete assessments while the more in-depth semistructured interviews be utilized to confirm unfitness, especially when the mental health professional has more than trivial doubt regarding an individual's FST. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 8:43-72 (2008)]

show abstract

“…Coles and others presented a preliminary report ofthe development of a psychometric instrument designed to assist psychiatrists and, ultimately, the courts to reach a decision on unfitness in those trials that involve accused persons with mentalretardation (21,22). They selected only I aspect ofunfitness for formal assessment: understanding.…”

Section: Psychometric Assessment Of Unfitness To Stand Trialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their scoring procedure, Coles and others proposed that the 45 individual items on the assessment instrument were to be scored from 0 to 3, depending on the number of questions answered correctly, with the individual item scores then summed to give 3 section scores, each with a maximum of45 (21,22). But single scores for understanding the nature or object of the proceedings, understanding the possible consequences of the proceedings, and being able to communicate with counsel cannot be calculated for exactly the same reason that a single fitness/unfitness score cannot be calculated: they are all synthetic, conjunctive concepts that do not correspond to a single, unitary characteristic.…”

Section: Quantificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Unfitness to Stand Trial: Psychological Analysis of a Legal Issue

Veiel

Coles

1999

Can J Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The structure of the legal concept of unfitness to stand trial and how it corresponds to psychometric concepts is examined. We conclude that psychometric attempts at quantification and measurement are logically flawed, because they inappropriately treat fitness/unfitness as an individual trait rather than as situation-specific conjunctive/disjunctive concepts. It is argued that, whereas psychometric approaches may be suitable for measuring single components of unfitness, an overall "fitness" score is meaningless and that the assessment should focus on elements of unfitness. The determination of unfitness requires the simultaneous consideration of several different individual capabilities in reference to the demands of a specific trial. The quantification of these specific capabilities by psychologists can assist psychiatrists and the court, but the evaluation of their influence on unfitness in the instant case must be left to the court.

show abstract

Assessment of Understanding by People Manifesting Mental Retardation: A Preliminary Report

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

The Picture Plus Discussion Intervention: Text Access for High School Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

The Picture Plus Discussion Intervention: Text Access for High School Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

Fitness/Competency to Stand Trial: A Conceptual Overview, Review of Existing Instruments, and Cross-Validation of the Nussbaum Fitness Questionnaire

Measuring Unfitness to Stand Trial: Psychological Analysis of a Legal Issue

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About