This report describes the activities of the Head Start program relating to children with disabilities in the 1988-1989 year. Head Start nationally achieved a 13.5 percent level of enrollment of children with professionally diagnosed disabilities. All states and jurisdictions met the federal mandate of at least 10 percent enrollment of children…

The Student Descriptor Scale (SDS) was developed as a validation measure to determine whether students described and counted by states as "severely handicapped" were, indeed, students with severe disabilities. The SDS addresses nine characteristics: intellectual disability, health impairment, need for toileting assistance, upper torso motor…

The article describes and discusses commonly seen problem children, delineates information into the causes of the emotional and behavioral problems, explores strategies for teachers working with the child on a daily basis, and provides anecdotal data to help detect the emotionally disabled child and to illustrate the recommended interventions.…

The authors review the legislative antecedents of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, 1975 (PL 94-142), an overview of the purpose and intent of Congress in enacting the legislation, and discuss some long-range implications for society. (MB)

Speech and language assessment of 719 black preschool children with linguistically and culturally sensitive materials indicated that 10.6 percent failed the screenings. When full diagnostic evaluations were conducted, prevalence rates for the entire sample were 2.6 percent for language disorders, 1.5 percent for speech disorders, and 1.4 percent…

The authors respond to a critique of their article proposing low IQ as the sole defining characteristics of mental retardation and address such issues as social versus intellectual definitions, the role of social adaptation in defining mental retardation, the relevance of diverse definitions to research and practice, and the nature-nurture…

Considered in this article addressing the policy issues of educational services to bilingual exceptional children are: characteristics of Hispanic learning disabled students, special education policy and practice, program availability, personnel, identification and placement, programs, and professional development. (DB)

Demographic data, IQ, achievement, perceptual-motor, behavior ratings, and diagnostic classification (learning, mental, emotional disability or no handicap) were analyzed for all children (N=2002) referred for complete psychological evaluation during one school year in Iowa. Learning disabled children showed a distinct pattern different from…

A rural school developed a system to identify and intervene with students whose learning styles did not match the school's predominantly verbal-auditory methods. A School Assessment Team produced a program to be implemented in regular class settings. A case of a second grader illustrates the value of suggested teaching strategies. (CL)

This digest summarizes what is known about gifted children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It identifies three subtypes of ADHD, noting both criteria for diagnosis and the subjective determination of what constitutes significant impairment. Discussion of differences in gifted and non-gifted children with ADHD reports findings…

Vision problems occur at higher rates in the deaf and hearing impaired population than in the general population. When an individual has a hearing impairment, vision becomes more significant in the instructional and learning process, as well as in social and communicative exchanges. Regular comprehensive visual screening of hearing impaired…

This paper reviews the literature on the role of judgment and collaboration between clinicians and researchers to identify and instruct students with reading difficulties, particularly reading difficulties based on either underlying core deficits in phonological processing or poor language comprehension. For students with speech-sound based…

Alberta Education provides funding to school authorities to support the development and implementation of programming for students with severe disabilities. The Handbook for the Identification and Review of Students with Severe Disabilities presents case studies to assist school authorities in identifying students who may be eligible for special…

This booklet provides information on the critical issues involved in providing academic adjustments in a college or university setting for students with psychiatric disabilities. It begins with a brief description of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Information is then presented in a question…

This study examined the prevalence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) among school children in Arkansas for the purpose of helping school districts plan appropriate educational interventions. The ADHD Survey was mailed to all 311 school superintendents; 128 surveys were returned. Findings revealed that, overall, 3 percent of…