The current study investigated the stability of children's risk status across the preschool year. A total of 1,102 preschool children attending Title 1 schools (n = 631) and non-Title 1 schools (n = 471) participated in this study. Using averaged standard scores for two measures of language, print knowledge, and phonological awareness administered…

Although the exact prevalence is not determined, a noticeable subset of individuals who enroll in adult education and training programs have either diagnosed or undiagnosed specific learning disabilities (SLD). Understanding SLD is important basic information for adult educators to inform program policies as well as determine effective…

The regression-based discrepancy definition of learning disabilities has been suggested by Rutter and Yule as an improvement of the well-known and much criticized achievement-intelligence discrepancy definition, whereby the examinee's predicted reading attainment is substituted for the intelligence score in the discrepancy expression. Even though…

Emergent literacy skills are predictive of children's early reading success, and literacy achievement in early schooling declines more rapidly for children who are below-average readers. It is therefore important for teachers to identify accurately children at risk for later reading difficulty so children can be exposed to effective emergent…

This article reviews the validity of models based on (a) aptitude--achievement discrepancies, (b) low achievement, (c) intraindividual differences, and (d) response to instruction for the classification and identification of learning disabilities (LD). Models based on aptitude--achievement discrepancies and intraindividual differences showed…

The experience of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of suburban Buffalo, New York, belies the beliief that traditional practices of labeling students are necessary to obtain funding of special educational programs. (DB)

The article examines the background and current status of attempts to define the term "learning disabilities" (LDs), and concludes that resolution of the problem by continued search for a consummate definition of LD is unrealistic. (Author)

The variety of separate syndromes which present themselves to the clinician are said to belie any unitary statement about the child with minimal brain dysfunction. (Author)

Examined are some generic issues and problems related to the development of operational procedures for identifying learning disabled children, focusing on the formula proposed by the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped. (DLS)

Discussed are some negative implications of the final federal rules for evaluating specific learning disabilities (Federal Register, December 29, 1977), which conceptually redefined learning disabilities to mean an "underachievement." (DLS)