An examination was conducted to address issues concerning the assessment of students with learning disabilities (LD) in English speaking Canadian postsecondary institutions. These issues concern the nature of appropriate and evidence-based assessment and whether there is fair access to academic accommodations for students with LD. Access to…

People with an intellectual disability have existed across human history, making up a part of all cultures. They represent a small part of the extremely wide variety of people in the human population at any one time. This review essay examines the 11th and latest Definition and Classification Manual published by the American Association on…

The author traces the history of defining giftedness and asserts that, despite the controversy, general intelligence, as measured on a standardized intelligence test, still provides the best single, reliable predictor of academic aptitude, task commitment, and creativity. (CL)

This paper responds to criticisms of the American Association on Mental Retardation's new definition of mental retardation. Emphasis is on the intent to change from a deficiency model to a support model, with more importance given to the role of the environment. Also addressed are IQ score guidelines, cultural bias, assessment, and public policy.…

Two classification procedures for identifying children with reading disabilities were compared, differing in their use of intelligence quotient (IQ). Results indicated that abandoning IQ in classification had a very limited impact on the number of children identified as reading disordered, but that use of IQ resulted in more high-IQ children being…

This article discusses research on the traditional use of the IQ-achievement discrepancy to define specific reading disability. It highlights results from a study which found that IQ scores did not differentiate between poor readers who were found to be readily remediated and poor readers who were difficult to remediate. (Contains references.)…

This study, involving 1,069 children (ages 9-14) referred for evaluation of learning disability, used 3 definitions of reading disability to provide criteria for 5 groups of children based on discrepancy between intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic achievement. Results question the validity of segregating children with reading deficiencies…

This study of 1,657 children (ages 7-16) found that although children with dyslexia had higher intelligence quotient scores than poor readers, the 2 groups did not differ in performance on reading, spelling, phonological processing, or most language and memory tasks. The performance of both reading-disabled groups was significantly below that of…

Two key concepts in diagnosing learning disabilities ("severe discrepancy" and "process dysfunction") are reviewed, and their relationship to the habilitation of learning is discussed. Guidelines are given for calculating a severe discrepancy, and the evaluation of processing skills is discussed. Strength models of remediation…

Results of a survey of 47 state departments of public instruction regarding eligibility criteria for the identification of children with mental retardation are compared to results of 1981-82 and 1985-86 surveys. Although states continue to vary widely in definitions and procedures, more states now specify assessments of intelligence, adaptive…

Developmental and criterion reading and writing measures were administered to 300 primary-level students, revealing that elimination of IQ in the definition of learning disabilities would dramatically affect who is identified as learning disabled. A two-stage assessment model analyzing absolute criteria without IQ and relative criteria with IQ is…