Assessment in intellectual disability

This review examines an eclectic selection of publications from the past 12 months under the broad heading of 'assessment in intellectual disability'. Being unable to cover all possible publications the authors have concentrated on the assessment of pain (in those with severe intellectual disability), psychopathology, risk assessment and offending, autism, preference and choice, and dementia.

Research into assessment has generally taken the form of developing new instruments, or adapting existing ones, or comparing the performance of a range of scales in a certain area. Researchers are using increasingly sophisticated psychometric analyses and refining the nature and purpose of tools for a range of clinical purposes.

The result of recent effort in this area is better instruments, often developed by experienced researchers who have been working in their chosen area of speciality for some years. It has been a very worthwhile period of extension and consolidation.