This review examines published hearing/review and court decisions concerning autism eligibility in educational settings in relation to empirically supported best practices in the assessment of autism. Thirteen cases were identified for inclusion in the review. In general, results indicated that hearing/review officers and judges neither relied…

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) assumes a biopsychosocial basis for disability and provides a framework for understanding how environmental factors contribute to the experience of disability. To determine the utility of prevalent disability assessment instruments, the authors examined the extent to…

The author describes his model for determining severe discrepancy in children with learning disabilities (LD). The model stresses quality of data. The author also notes that the most highly trained personnel available should evaluate potential LD children. (CL)

The author reviews methods of studying individuals in context (ecological, phenomenological, and system approaches) and offers suggestions for implementing these approaches in identification, assessment, and intervention procedures for language-disordered children. (CL)

This resource list is intended to provide school systems with information on assessment of school-aged children for the presence of a disability. The 104 references are broken down into the following categories: general assessment information; assessment tools; critiques of assessment tools; curriculum-based assessment; assessments of different…

Dyslexia is a term that has been applied since the early part of the 20th Century to many students with reading difficulties. The term comes from medicine, but its broadest application is within education. Many educators, however, remain confused about the term in spite of the fact that major advances in the understanding of dyslexia have been…

The awareness and knowledge of developmental milestones among health practitioners need to be enhanced to better enable early identification and intervention with children who have delays in development, intellectual deficit, and developmental disabilities and are residents in low-and middle-income countries. To meet this end, a simple one-page…

At least 60% of children with disabilities have multiple disabilities including visual impairments (VI). Because the visual system is neurologically based, any problems of the neurological system will also likely affect vision. The estimated number of students with VI and additional disabilities has increased significantly over the years. Since…

The inclusion of young children with disabilities has remained a function of the Head Start program since its inception in the 1960s when the United States Congress mandated that children with disabilities comprise 10% of the Head Start enrollment (Zigler & Styfco, 2000). Standardized, norm-referenced tests used to identify children with…

Examples of information available from the Educational Testing Service Test Collection Database are presented on identification and evaluation of children with learning disabilities, preschool-grade three. Citations include title of the instrument, author's name, year, availability and grade level information, and a brief abstract. (CL)

Explains the rationale, methodology, and advantages of the regression equation approach to quantifying academic discrepancy, an aspect of learning disability. Variations of the expectancy formula and IQ-achievement difference approach produce serious errors of including too many above average children and too few below average. (JAC)

The report describes a child with central auditory dysfunction, the first reported case where brain-stem dysfunction on audiologic tests were associated with specific electrophysiologic changes in the brain-stem auditory-evoked responses. (Author/CL)

A zone of quotients from 81 to 90 was identified as a borderline region, below which readers are designated as "disabled" and above which they are designated as "normal" readers. Journal Availability: J. B. Lippincott Co., East Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19105. (Author/CL)

The author warns of dangers associated with Ontarios's Kindergarten Early Identification Program, including hasty and incomplete assessment of children who will then be labeled exceptional, biases affecting children with cultural differences, and inadequacy of many screening and assessment instruments. (CL)

Standardized IQ tests which cannot take into account the effects of handicapping conditions such as learning disabilities or hearing impairments can contribute to the mislabeling of children as dull or mildly mentally retarded unless the clinicians are careful to consider this possibility. (PHR)