Survey data from five school system coordinators of special education in Alabama indicate incongruity between the criteria for identification of learning disabled adolescents proposed by J. Lee Wiederholt (1975) and the observed characteristics of 161 students, grade 7 through 12, already identified as learning disabled. (JG)

The various types of giftedness are explained, government provision (both in the U.S. and abroad) for the gifted is reviewed, and contributions of national associations to the gifted movement are pointed out. (SBH)

In an attempt to refine the definition of learning disabilities, a new term, dyssymbolia is proposed. (CL)

A pediatric neurologist and child psychologist discusses the definition of learning disabilities and considers the role of individual differences in reading readiness and reading problems. (CL)

"How can the children learn," parents ask, "when they are having so much fun? How can they learn when all they do is play?" Examines the work of educational theorists in answering such questions. (Author/RK)

"Mainstreaming" refers to attempts to educate handicapped pupils within settings which are as close to normal as possible. This article defines mainstreaming, describes some roles for regular education in mainstreaming, discusses the context in which mainstreaming evolved, and offers some recommendations and cautions to consider in coping with the…

The authors contend that the experimental psychology of mental retardation suffers from methatheoretical and methodological weaknesses, preeminently the failure to consider the ecology of mental retardation. (CL)

Offers a defense of the school play as a vastly underrated educational tool. Available from: Speech and Drama, Elizabeth Gradwell, Distribution Manager, The White Cottage, Allington, Chippenham, Wilts. (MH)

Disputed is the contention of P. Brooks and A. Baumeister (EC 092 551) that most mental retardation research is unsound due to insufficient attention to ecological factors. (BB)

Available from: National Center for Law and the Handicapped, Inc., 1235 North Eddy Street, South Bend, Indiana 46617. The general funding formula and preschool incentive grant formula for Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, is explained. (CL)

The shift of focus from teachers to curriculum has left supervision as a field struggling to find its place within its own professional organization. This article searches for a proper definition of supervision, highlighting scientific, developmental, and democratic approaches and exploring problems of perspective and common ground. Includes 48…

Demonstrates the use of a directed graph model as a tool for finding desirable minimum vocabularies to be used in indexing and information retrieval. The basic algorithm is outlined, possible enhancements to the model are discussed, and further research questions are suggested. (Author/CLB)

Describes features of Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) that make it thesaurus-compatible and a source for thesaurus compilers: facet analysis, terminology source, thesaural relationship source, and updating ease. Problems with using BC2 as a thesaurus source are also considered, and two thesauri based on BC2 are described. (MBR)

Demonstrates that hierarchical naming schemes--one with a single namespace and fixed root spread over all machines in a distributed system, and a second with total namespace composed of some aggregation of individual namespaces of each component system's filestores--can coexist in distributed computer systems. Combined system's design is…