Comprehension skill levels and prevalence of maladaptive behaviors in autistic and mentally retarded children. A statistical study.

A statistical study on the comparison of the comprehension skill levels between the group with and the group without each maladaptive behavior of nine items was done for autistic and mentally retarded children. Results indicated that the group of the autistic children with hyperactivity or withdrawal had slightly, not significantly, lower comprehension skill levels than the group of those without each of these maladaptive behaviors. On the other hand, the correlation between the prevalence of hyperactivity or withdrawal and lower comprehension skill levels was seen more clearly, with statistically significant differences, rather among the mentally retarded children.