Children's math performance is strongly correlated with later life outcomes, but early gaps in math skills are stubbornly difficult to close. It is therefore important to identify student math needs early. Using Grade 1-3 student records from Kentucky public schools, the study finds that typically recommended cut scores for widely used early grade…

The Screening and Linkage to Services for Autism pragmatic trial examined the effect of family navigation on referral and evaluation for autism spectrum disorder in an urban healthcare system serving low-income families. Children aged 16-30 months with initial scores [greater than or equal to]3 on the Modified Checklist for Autism in…

Some children experience more difficulty than others becoming literate, often at great emotional, intellectual, social, and economic cost to themselves, but also to those who love and care for them, and for society at large. The causes of those difficulties and what to do about them have been the source of much research and sometimes heated…

Dyslexia and other learning disabilities are not being properly recognized and treated in our educational system or society at large. Unrecognized and untreated learning disabilities represent a serious social and economic problem, not only to the individual but to society as a whole. For example, antisocial behavior, as seen in prison populations…

School districts in the U.S. are mandated to identify young children with disabilities. Developmental screeners are typically used to screen for such skill deficits. Academic tests are used in older students. A significant challenge is identifying children with potential learning disabilities early in their school career. This study identifies a…

A screening procedure for the identification of potentially gifted kindergarten children was developed and tested with 350 students in rural Pennsylvania during the 1977-1978 school year. The screening procedure used the Slosson Drawing Coordination Test, the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts, the Draw-A-Man Test, and a teacher checklist. A total of 52…

The Cummings Checklist of Characteristics of Gifted and Talented Children (CC) was evaluated with 516 elementary age pupils. Teachers used the checklist to nominate students for the gifted program. Ss were classified as either Test (IQ) Identified Gifted (TIG), Non-Test Identified Gifted (NTIG), or not classified. Results indicated that (1) the CC…

The paper reports a pilot study of 280 entering first grade students to try to identify potential handicaps, giftedness, or other special needs. During the preregistration program Ss were given measures of visual acuity, auditory acuity, and language functioning. Language test data allowed the identification of six profile types for further…

The study hypothesized that scatter analysis of the three subtest scale scores on the Meeting Street School Screening Test (gross motor patterning, visual-perceptual-motor, and language) given at the beginning of first grade would prove to be a more accurate predictor of future placement in a learning disabilities program than the cut-off total…

Early screening programs to determine learning problems in preschool children are evaluated. A review of early identification literature indicates considerable difficulty in describing screening results and determining when a screening program accurately identifies those students believed to be "at risk." The authors propose several…

This paper discusses the definition of learning disability through the concept of early identification of vulnerable children, based on a study of 650 inner-city preschool children. While the study's first step, scanning, identified the children who were vulnerable to learning disability, the second step, diagnosis, attempted to find the reasons…

The Early Prevention of School Failure Program (EPSF) was initiated in Peotone, Illinois, in 1971. The stated purpose was to prevent school failure through early identification and remediation of developmental learning deficiencies in four- to six-year-old children. The project components were team screening, team conference, education planning,…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences between learning disabled and nonlearning disabled students in skill areas and total scores on the Brigance K & 1 Screen for Kindergarten and First Grade. The study investigated whether students with learning disabilities would show significant weaknesses in language-based…

The author cites issues involved in defining learning disabilities and suggests that it is a subcategory of underachievement. He summarizes his ongoing attempt to identify underachievers in kindergarten through a regression-referenced approach. (CL)

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated the effectiveness of the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale (PECFAS) Screener, an assessment designed to assist in the early identification of mental health concerns in preschool-aged children. Formed in 1993, the Putting All Communities Together 4 Families…