Information about early intervention was disseminated via mass media and group meetings. Findings revealed that parents attending group meetings learned specific information about available services and legal educational rights. Mass media stimulated requests for information but did not measurably affect parents' knowledge of early intervention.…

The article posits that emotionally disturbed (ED) children routinely are diagnosed as learning disabled (LD), a situation deriving from diagnostic problems and inadequacies of definitions. Among suggestions made for special educators are knowing ED and LD definitions, and becoming assertive as evaluation team members. (MC)

The bivariate normal distribution can be used to determine the prevalence of reading disabilities when the primary variables are reading achievement and IQ and when the correlation between reading and IQ is known or can be estimated. The advantages and diadvantages of the bivariate normal distribution are discussed. (Author/CL)

Data from reports of the federally funded Child Service Demonstration Centers (CSDCs) are said to show that only three CSDCs adhered to all criteria in the federal definition of learning disabilities. The author suggests that LD should be adopted as a generic term for all mild handicaps. (CL)

A screening method for distinguishing speech and language disordered children (2 to 15 years old) with and without psychiatric disorders (N=256) involved cutoff scores for an easily administered parent and teacher behavior rating questionnaire. (CL)

Study evaluated sensitivity of two independent rapid naming tests--Naming Pictured Objects and Producing Names on Confrontation--in differentiating 16 children (7 and 8 years old) with language and learning disabilities from 16 age peers with normal language development and academic achievement. The interrelationship between total naming time and…

The Pediatric Examination of Educational Readiness, a standardized observation system which combines a prekindergarten physical examination with a neurodevelopmental and behavioral assessment, was field tested on 386 children, of whom 22 percent revealed a "definite concern" in one area of development or behavior, 8 percent in two, and…

The article addresses assessment of the young handicapped child and describes development of the Competency Assessment Profile. Journal availability: see EC 133 846. (Author)

Issues concerning physical and occupational therapy in the school setting are discussed. Questions as to appropriate types of therapy, methods for determining need, and desired outcomes are raised. (CJ)

A study was made of the usefulness of the Infant Rating Scale (IRS) in the early identification of learning difficulties. Thirteen hundred five-year-olds were rated by their teachers after one term in school. The structure of the IRS, its reliability, and predictive validity are examined. (Author/SJL)

Two methods of identifying language disordered children were examined in a study involving 54 regular kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers in two Albuquerque schools serving 1,212 children (assigned on a roughly matched basis to one of two groups). (Author/PHR)

A shortened form of the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST)--used to identify language impaired children--was developed and cross-validated with the original test. The shortened version, taking approximately 10 minutes to administer, was normed in six-month intervals, as opposed to the one-year intervals of the original NSST. (Author/DLS)

The original identifiers of mental retardation for a group of 498 consecutive admissions (ages 0 to adult) to a state operated outpatient clinic were determined. More clients identified by a private physician were found on reevaluation to be at less severe levels of retardation than were the clients seen by public health related agencies. (Author)

Intended for the teacher of handicapped children, the article describes some symptoms of language processing difficulty. Prerequisite skills for language comprehension are reviewed, and characteristics which can help to identify children with receptive language problems are listed. (SBH)

The study was designed to determine the degree of agreement between standardized tests of language development and clinical judgment. The Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), the Carrow Elicited Language Inventory (CELI), and the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development (SICD) were used. (Author)