The underidentification of students with autism is a well-documented phenomenon that implies minority children are less likely to receive autism-specific interventions and services vital for better outcomes. Previous research has found that minority children are less likely to be identified as having autism, but recent changes in federal reporting…

Having strong alphabet knowledge early in life is a powerful predictor of long-term reading and academic outcomes. Upon tracking the alphabet knowledge of 172 children enrolled in their first year of Head Start, we identified that most of the children could name fewer than 10 letters at the beginning of the academic year. Approximately, one third…

Response to intervention (RTI) is increasingly being implemented in schools as a means to identify students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Despite its wide use, there is limited research regarding school psychologists' graduate preparation in and familiarity with RTI for SLD identification. This study examined how school psychologists'…

Despite decades of research on racial disproportionality in special education, the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in services tends to be overlooked in policy and practice. Underrepresentation, however, raises the possibility of similar concerns about misidentification, bias, and racial inequality within schools as overrepresentation. Yet,…

Several studies have reported high comorbidity for reading disability (RD) and psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate the comorbidity of subthreshold and full psychiatric disorders with RD while comparing subgroups based on age of RD recognition (early vs. late). We analyzed data from 130 children with RD and 82 typically…

This paper addresses the identification of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream primary schools by their teachers. Data were analysed from two consecutive measurement occasions of a large cohort study in the Netherlands. The types and severity of pupils' problems, and their school careers were studied. Around 25% of the pupils…

Handwriting execution is based on the cognitive, kinesthetic, motor skills, and manual co-ordination skills of an individual. The deterioration in handwriting quality is a common implication of neurological disorders. Difficulty and degradation in handwriting has been attributed to the sensory motor deficits prevalent in developmental disorders.…

Parents (n = 11,845) completed the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (or its latest revision) at pediatric visits. Using sociodemographic predictors of maternal education and race, binary logistic regressions were utilized to examine differences in autism screening, diagnostic evaluation participation rates and outcomes, and reasons for…

This study estimated compliance with American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for well-child care and the association between compliance and age at diagnosis in a national sample of Medicaid-enrolled children with autism (N = 1,475). Mixed effects linear regression was used to assess the relationship between compliance and age at diagnosis.…

To evaluate evidence for motor impairment specificity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children completed performance-based assessment of motor functioning (Movement Assessment Battery for Children: MABC-2). Logistic regression models were used to predict group membership. In the models…

Methods for identifying dyslexia in adults vary widely between studies. Researchers have to decide how many tests to use, which tests are considered to be the most reliable, and how to determine cut-off scores. The aim of this study was to develop an objective and powerful method for diagnosing dyslexia. We took various methodological measures,…

The Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) is a popular behavior-observation instrument that was developed more than 34 years ago and has since been adopted in a wide variety of contexts for assessing the presence and severity of autism symptomatology in both children and adolescents. This investigation of the reliability of CARS scores involves…

The study investigated morphosyntactic abilities and semantic-pragmatic competence in 24 children with developmental dyslexia aged 7-12 years. Morphosyntactic abilities were investgated in a direct object clitic production task, semantic-pragmatic competence in a quantifier comprehension task. Children with dyslexia produced fewer clitics than…

We investigated whether minority children attending U.S. elementary and middle schools are disproportionately represented in special education. We did so using hazard modeling of multiyear longitudinal data and extensive covariate adjustment for potential child-, family-, and state-level confounds. Minority children were consistently less likely…

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with emotional problems such as anxiety and depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). A recent study of the "Child Behavior Checklist 6-18" (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) indicated good sensitivity but relatively low specificity for identifying emotional problems…