For courses dealing with the Characteristics of Mental Retardation. This market-leading text provides educators with the most current information about the many facets of mental retardation and intellectual disabilities from a life-cycle perspective.  The authors provide comprehensive yet concise coverage of all relevant content and also show relationships between theory and practice, decode the terminology used in the field, and relate these terms and concepts to the reality of the classroom, the world of work, and the life of the community.