This paper provides guidelines for the audiologic assessment of infants and young children, highlighting recent technologic advances in auditory electrophysiology, acoustic immitance measure procedures, and behavioral audiometric techniques. First, audiologic assessment guidelines developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association are…

In this introductory article, a response-to-instruction approach to learning disabilities (LD) identification is discussed. An overview of the promise and potential pitfalls of such an approach is provided. Benefits include identification of students based on risk rather than deficit and early identification. Questions concern the integrity of the…

In order to locate optimal cutoff scores for detecting developmental delays, the Brigance Screens were administered to 408 children (ages 21-48 months) along with a criterion battery measuring achievement and intelligence. The Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses were then used to locate optical cutoff scores for each form of the Brigance.…

This article recommends that, to comply with federal legislation, a multilevel, multimodal approach be used for assessment and identification of students with attention deficit disorder (ADD). It identifies several purposes of ADD assessment, explains various instruments and procedures, and offers guidelines for using assessment to determine…

A study involving 11,804 British children (age 10) found that when specified criteria for dyslexia were used, 269 children qualified as dyslexic. These included 223 boys and 46 girls, for a ratio of 4.51 to 1. Difficulties in interpreting these data are discussed and a defense of the criteria is provided. (Author/CR)

Proposes how good practice can be developed in the assessment of dyslexia with bilingual children, presents evidence that language minorities are underrepresented in special programs, and highlights the value of recent approaches to defining dyslexia that do not depend on exclusionary criteria or on IQ-achievement discrepancy. (Author/VWL)

The first in seven sets of guidelines based on the consensus of experts in the treatment of psychiatric and behavioral problems in mental retardation (MR) focuses on diagnosis and assessment. It includes the definition and levels of mental retardation, difficulties in diagnosing psychiatric and behavioral problems in the presence of MR, assessment…

Two studies on young children are reported that address the psychometric characteristics of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED). Results from the studies indicate that the SAED is a reliable and valid instrument for identifying young children who may qualify for the federal definition of emotional disturbance. (Contains…

Rich with clinical insights, this volume reviews the state of the science of identifying and treating autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in very young children. Leading authorities examine critical research issues and present innovative approaches to assessing social, cognitive, adaptive, communication, and sensory-motor impairments in the first two…

The cognitive styles of 40 children (ages 8-17) with serious emotional disturbance (SED) were investigated via their performance on Planning-Attention-Simultaneous-Successive (PASS) model tasks as represented by the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (CAS). In the study, the children with SED and 40 typical children were administered the 14…

Focus is on a conceptualization of initial assessment and consultation, the problem-solving paradigm as a framework for guiding this activity, and a description of procedures and initial data from a demonstration program. (Author/DLS)

Describes an instrument for identifying students with learning disabilities that was tested on more than a thousand Israeli students (grades 4-10) with and without reading and writing disabilities. The instrument was found to be valid in locating student disabilities in reading, writing, and visual recall. (CR)

A replication study compared 86 petition students who received course substitutions for the college foreign language (FL) requirement with 40 nonpetition students who fulfilled the requirement by passing FL courses. Findings indicate more than half of all the students did not meet criteria for learning disability classification. (Contains…

A French study of 136 children (ages 20-139 months) with developmental disabilities investigated the reliability and validity of the Revised Behavior Summarized Evaluation Scale (BSE-R) in evaluating autistic behavior in children with developmental delays. The BSE-R was found to be useful for progressive recording of the evolution of patients…

Analysis of data on 1,404 young children with hearing losses indicated that 80% of the children were identified via informal hearing-screening procedures, such as parental suspicion and referral. Auditory brainstem response technology provided the lowest mean identification age. The study concludes that formal screening programs are not locating…