Lattice analysis and the representation of handicap associations

A main goal of this paper is to show how lattice analysis and the computer program GLAD can help in understanding the associations among psychological/somatic handicaps for a population of children excluded from school because of those handicaps. The lattices can be taken as a conceptual as well as an implicational model of multiple handicaps because of their capacity for formalizing the definitions of disorders in terms of extensions or intensions. Certain substructures of the lattice, weighted by the frequencies of the subject groups, can display the assessed associations between handicaps, thus addressing quite directly the research questions of the health services.