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Abstract

School psychologists play an important role in the assessment and classification of mental retardation. Although the current diagnostic and classification systems contain slight differences in their diagnostic criteria for mental retardation, they contain three essential elements: (a) a presence of significant deficits in cognitive functioning, (b) a concurrent presence of significant limitations in adaptive behavior, and (c) an onset during the developmental period. Researchers have previously documented the over reliance of IQ testing alone in the diagnosis and classification of mental retardation. We explored the practices and opinions of a random sample of school psychologists regarding the assessment of children for mental retardation. The results of this study reveal that (a) the IQ test results are viewed by many school psychologists as the sole indicator needed to classify a child with mental retardation, (b) 25% of school psychologists surveyed never used a measure of adaptive behavior, and (c) less than half (45%) of psychologists surveyed reported using systematically a standardized measure of adaptive behavior when classifying children with mental retardation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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Assessment of Mental Retardation by School Psychologists

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