Educators, families, and policy actors rely on federal and state special education law to inform many decision-making processes. Vague eligibility criteria within the laws can result in conflict between school districts and parents. Resulting due process hearing decisions can have important implications for future practice. One area of particular…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the acceptance and support of neurodiverse people in society, with a focus on autism, and to use this to propose a framework to enhance inclusivity that can inform pedagogy within the education sectors. Design/methodology/approach: Three case studies from higher education have been presented…

Autistic children have the right to be included in early childhood educational (ECE) settings. Motivated by the need for knowledge of how such education can be developed, this study examined the perspectives of ECE staff (i.e. teachers, child carers, and principals) on interprofessional collaboration regarding identifying and working with autistic…

This scoping review analyzes empirical research studies focused on Early Intervention (EI) services, covered under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the United States, for children birth-to-3 years old with significant support needs (SSNs). The purposes were to gauge the landscape of literature in this area, understand…

Research examining the impact of gender on educational outcomes in autistic students has been sparse. To address this gap, this study investigated the educational journeys of students with autism spectrum disorder in British Columbia, Canada. We examined (1) the time it takes for students to receive an initial autism spectrum disorder designation;…

We use data from Michigan and an interrupted time series strategy to show how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted special education identifications and discontinuations. We find a substantial decrease in K-5 identifications and discontinuations during the 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 school years. Identifications fell by 19% and 12% in the first two…

We studied the associations between childhood-identified learning disabilities and adult-age mental health and whether adult-age reading and math skills, coping styles, or resilience influenced the associations. The participants were 159 Finnish adults (60.4% males). Of them, 48 (30%) had a reading disability (RD), 22 (14%) had a math disability…

Objective: To determine the demographic and clinical characteristics of children followed up with the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at a tertiary center in Southeeast Turkey. Methods: Children followed up with the diagnosis of ASD at a university hospital child psychiatry clinic between June 2016 and June 2021 were evaluated…

Currently, no culturally and linguistically adapted autism screening tools are available in South Africa. The aim was to determine the reliability and concurrent validity of the adapted English and Northern Sotho-translated Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers--Revised with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Reliability was confirmed with near-perfect…

This study examined the effectiveness of the "Thrive by Three" intervention for 1- to 3-year-old's language development. Data from 78 childcare centres, 187 toddler classrooms, and 1561 children (91.4% native Norwegian) were included. Results revealed that children in the intervention group had slightly steeper language development than…

Background: In recent reviews of autism spectrum disorder screening tools, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/FTM) has been recommended for use in lower middle-income countries to promote earlier identification. Aim: The study aim was to culturally adapt and translate the M-CHAT-R/FTM into Northern…

The fact that researchers have not been able to reach consensus about what constitutes dyslexia, may lead to inconsistency in the operational definitions of the measures used to assess dyslexia, which in turn jeopardizes the validity of these assessments. As this has potential negative consequences for children in need of remedial reading…

We investigated how children with language difficulties are identified, and which adapted provision is given in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) before referrals are made to The Educational Psychological Service (EPS), and the EPS assessment of such difficulties. A qualitative content analysis of 20 documents pertaining to four…

Specific learning disorder (SLD) identification is arguably one of the most significant controversies in school psychology. One component of this issue is that guidelines and practices vary substantially across professionals and states, which leads to inconsistent identification rates and outcomes for students. To assess the extent of this problem…

This article discusses the author's belief that the notion of a foreign language (FL) "disability" started with the a priori assumption that there is a unique disability for FL learning and an intimate connection between FL learning and learning disabilities (LD). Educators, clinicians, and researchers were largely uninterested in…