The paper discusses the impact of two legal cases. In "Board versus Rowley," the Supreme Court established a three-part standard for appropriate education of students with disabilities. In "Centennial versus Commonwealth," the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that gifted students merit an Individualized Education Program and…

The study examined the relationship between extreme levels of depressive symptomatology and age, gender, and placement label among 465 secondary-level students in special education resource programs for the seriously emotionally disturbed and learning disabled. Gender was the only significant predictor of severe depressive symptomatology, with…

Issues raised in responses to Linda Siegel's paper (EC221505) on the relationship between intelligence test scores and learning disabilities are addressed. Discussed are the nature of intelligence, classification of learning disabilities by discrepancy between intelligence test scores and achievement scores, the existence of learning disabilities,…

Evaluation of a checklist by teachers to rate 60 secondary level learning-disabled and nondisabled students for mainstream competencies found no overall mean group differences and no inter-rater reliability, though ratings on work habits did predict course grades for all three groups (fully mainstreamed, partially mainstreamed, and nondisabled).…

Discusses the multidisciplinary team--comprised of individuals who represent various disciplines that contribute to the assessment process--and its relation to the implementation of the "least restrictive environment" for special-needs children required by Public Law 94-142. Describes the University of Florida Multidisciplinary…

Compares IQ's, and reading, math, and writing achievement for low and high IQ learning disabled students. Finds that the mean IQ scores of both groups declined significantly over time in spite of the fact that reading and writing achievement scores remained stable, and math scores declined. (RS)

Discusses the use of mapping to help learning disabled students unlock the historical narrative in their history textbooks. Presents one way to map the narrative structure or grammar of a history text, including suggestions on how to effectively model and motivate students. (GEA)

The effectiveness of computer simulation in enhancing learning of a health unit by 30 mildly learning-disabled high school students was investigated. Results indicate that computer simulation in combination with structured teaching was effective, particularly in the area of teaching problem-solving skills. (TJH)

The paper describes a model of teachers' attitudes toward integrating children with moderate learning difficulties based on interviews with 550 teachers in Arizona and the United Kingdom. The model has four factors: traumatic experiences with the handicapped, class size, the "what-happened yesterday" factor, and leadership. (Author/DB)

In response to Coles (EC 220 146), the article examines additional research concerning language-based theories of reading disability and finds problems with Cole's proposed research agenda focusing on systemic economic, social, and cultural conditions in the etiology of learning disabilities. (DB)

A study compared the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction and direct instruction in promoting simple number estimation skills in a group of eight children with moderate learning problems. Results showed that both approaches are associated with direct and transfer gains durable over four weeks. (MSE)

The relationship of achievement attributions of 34 learning-disabled children (in grades three through eight) to academic progress and developmental patterns of attributional styles was examined in longitudinal studies (continuing for two years). Developmental changes in achievement attributions parallel those of non-disabled peers (n=40), but…

Outlined are the weaknesses of traditional, norm-referenced tests which fail to help in making instructional decisions. Presented is a step-by-step series of operations for analyzing and categorizing arithmetic errors, for selecting corrective strategies, and for applying peer-referenced standards to judge the performance of special needs…

Using a set of fine-grained auditory discrimination tasks, 21 children with language-learning problems were compared with 21 normal children, aged six-nine. Across three years, children with language-learning problems showed poorer auditory discrimination for temporally based acoustic differences, poorer receptive vocabulary and language…

Eleven elementary-school hearing-impaired students were shown pictures and asked to make up a story; and were presented stories in speech and signs, with and without pictures, and asked to retell the stories. Results indicated that the students made use of story grammars in organizing retellings and in constructing stories; pictures enhanced…