Abstract
The early descriptions of persons with mental retardation emphasized their inability to adapt to the demands of everyday life (Biasini, Grupe, Huffman, &Bray, 1999; Greenspan & Driscoll, 1997; Scheerenberger, 1983). In 1850, Seguin argued that “sensibility, of intelligence, and will” could help to identify mental retardation in instances when, “to a casual observation, the question may arise whether any default in these particulars exists at all” (Wilbur, 1877, p. 31). In the early twentieth century Tredgold described mental retardation as incomplete mental development “of such a kind and degree that the individual is incapable of adapting himself to the normal environment of his fellows in such a way as to maintain existence independently of supervision, control, or external support” (Luckasson et al., 2002, p. 20). Thus, dating back to the original perceptions, limits in the ability adapt to the demands of everyday life, i.e., adaptive behavior, have been a central and distinguishing feature of mental retardation.
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Borthwick-Duffy, S.A. (2007). Adaptive Behavior. In: Jacobson, J.W., Mulick, J.A., Rojahn, J. (eds) Handbook of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Issues on Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-32931-5_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-32931-5_15
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