The SSBP was set up in the UK in 1987 by a small group of doctors, psychologists and research workers who had been investigating behavioural and emotional aspects of biologically determined syndromes associated with intellectual disability The SSBP was awarded a project grant by the Medical Research Council to carry out the pilot phase for a comparative study of behaviours in 500 children, 50 with each of 10 different biologically determined mentally handicapping disorders Another SSBP initiative has been the development of a postal questionnaire which can be used as a first stage instrument for investigating behaviours in biologically determined mentally handicapping disorders