Examined the usefulness of a multiple-stage screening procedure in identifying youth experiencing elevated levels of anxiety. Children in grades 4-7 completed a 3-stage screening procedure. Results paralleled outcomes for when the procedure was used to recognize depressed children. Concludes that multiple-stage screening can identify children…

Native Hawaiian preschoolers (n=172) received a battery of tests that included pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflectometry, and pneumatic otoscopy. Approximately 15% of children failed a majority of the tests. Results are discussed in comparison to other indigenous groups at risk for middle ear disorders and hearing loss.…

This overview of recent developments in redefining attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder summarizes articles about assessment instruments and procedures and identifies important issues, including the construct of hyperactivity as it relates to attention, classification systems, and the lack of technical adequacy of many assessment instruments…

Questionnaires were completed by 100 parents of kindergarten-age children whom the parents thought to be mathematically precocious. Five factors were found to characterize responses: (1) general intellectual factor; (2) short- and long-term memory; (3) rote memory; (4) spatial reasoning; and (5) specific relational knowledge. Parents were able to…

This article analyzes how the dominant image of reality in the field of learning disabilities is derived from the diagnostic model. The article proposes an alternative, normative conception of education that emphasizes the importance of caring, social relatedness, and community participation. (Author/DB)

Investigated the racial attitudes of 302 preschool children in the West Indies whose racial preference was tested using black and white Cabbage Patch dolls. Standard Clark doll questions, plus four researcher-supplied questions, were individually administered. Findings show that 71.9 percent of the children chose to play with a white doll,…

Argues that socioeconomic status (SES) plays an important role in the lives of adolescents as reflected in adolescent literature. Examines three areas affected by SES: self-esteem, how literature affects characterization and the degree to which adolescents identify with a literary figure, and how literature functions as a learning device. (RJM)

Type I error rates of F. M. Lord's chi square test for differential item functioning were investigated using Monte Carlo simulations with marginal maximum likelihood estimation and marginal Bayesian estimation algorithms. Lord's chi square did not provide useful Type I error control for the three-parameter logistic model at these sample sizes.…

No significant differences in global self-esteem and self-concept stability were found between 380 self-identified majority and 262 self-defined minority (i.e., Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese) youth in the Netherlands. Minority youth did identify more strongly with their ethnic groups, and they evaluated their groups more positively than their…

Critiques tendencies toward dogmatism and essentialism in current educational theories of racial inequality. Argues that different gender, class, and ethnic interests intersect with racial coordination and affiliation, and that to reduce racial antagonism or ameliorate educational inequities educators must consider the powerful role of nuance,…

This paper examines acculturation of Southeast Asian-American students, most of whom come from refugee backgrounds; outlines their unique conditions of educational risk; describes assessment procedures which call for identifying skills previously developed in a different environment; and recommends reciprocal teaching to help refugee children…

This study investigated diagnosis of learning problems in 177 boys (ages 6-13) with behavior problems. The standard score discrepancy method and standard score plus low achievement method were more likely to identify children with above-average intelligence quotients as learning disabled, whereas a regression approach identified learning…

Toni Cade Bambara's novel "The Salt Eaters" is art colored by social responsibility as the author attempts to give her African-American audience a sense of their history and their identity so they can value and accept collective work and responsibility. The novel's strengths and thematic weaknesses are discussed. (SLD)

This article, which introduces six papers on the validity of distinguishing subgroups of children with language and learning disabilities based on discrepancies between academic attainment and intelligence test scores, comments on the papers' diversity in samples, measurement characteristics, and statistical approaches and outlines the studies'…

In a review of research on children without friends, the author notes the serious implications of growing up friendless. Issues covered include the process of identifying these children, their sociometric status and behaviors, the relation between children's status and dropping out of school, and considerations for teachers. (LB)