| Summary: | Challenging behavior in individuals with mental retardation (MR) is
relatively frequent, and represents a significant obstacle to adaptive
skills. The frequency of specific forms and manifestations of challenging
behavior can depend on a variety of personal and environmental factors. There
are several prominent theoretical models regarding the etiology of
challenging behavior and psychopathology in persons with MR: behavioral,
developmental, socio-cultural and biological. The biological model emphasizes
the physiological, biochemical and genetic factors as the potential source of
challenging behavior. The progress in the field of genetics and neuroscience
has opened the opportunity to study and discover the neurobiological basis of
phenotypic characteristics. Genetic syndromes associated with MR can be
followed by a specific set of problems and disorders which constitutes their
behavioral phenotype. The aim of this paper was to present challenging
behaviors that manifest in the most frequently studied syndromes: Down
syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Williams syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome and
Angelman syndrome. The concept of behavioral phenotype implies a higher
probability of manifesting specific developmental characteristics and
specific behaviors in individuals with a certain genetic syndrome. Although
the specific set of (possible) problems and disorders is distinctive for the
described genetic syndromes, the connection between genetics and behavior
should be viewed through probabilistic dimension. The probabilistic concept
takes into consideration the possibility of intra-syndrome variability in the
occurrence, intensity and time onset of behavioral characteristics, at which
the higher variability the lower is the specificity of the genetic syndrome.
Identifying the specific pattern of behavior can be most important for the
process of early diagnosis and prognosis. In addition, having knowledge about
behavioral phenotype can be a landmark in the creation of targeted treatment
strategies for individuals with a specific genetic syndrome.
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