Research and practice with congenital amputees: making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

This paper highlights the need for methodologically sound research on the motor, cognitive and psychosocial development of children with congenital limb deficiencies and the integration of findings in these three areas. Such topics have received little attention in the literature and systematic attempts to apply developmental theory to the assessment, fitting, training and evaluation of these children seldom have been made. A number of important current issues in research and practice are critically reviewed including optimal age for fitting, training procedures, prosthesis usage, cognitive deficits and vulnerability to psychosocial problems. Recommendations for the adoption of a more holistic approach to research and practice with amputee children are presented and the need to develop strategies for systematic evaluation and follow up is emphasized.

Family resources and stress associated with having a mentally retarded child.

Concepts drawn from family stress theory and current empirical information on families of handicapped children were integrated to further understand factors influencing parental adjustment to stress associated with such children living at home. Internal and external family resources and characteristics of the children were examined. Mothers (n = 60) were asked to complete four relevant questionnaires. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that characteristics of the child and the family's crisis-meeting resources were significant predictors of various forms of stress. Clinical implications of these findings and current research directions were discussed.

Attitudes of primary school children toward the physical appearance and labels associated with Down syndrome.

Attitudes of 80 kindergarten and 80 third-grade subjects responding to videotape excerpts of children either with or without Down syndrome and with or without the label and description "mentally retarded" were examined and affect, belief endorsements, and behavioral intentions were assessed. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that subjects were significantly less positive in their affective evaluations and belief endorsements toward target children labeled and described as mentally retarded. Third-grade children were significantly more negative in their affective responses toward children with Down syndrome, and kindergarten children were more positive in their evaluations of such children. Possible reasons for the lack of significant gender and contact differences were discussed.