This article examines recent discussion about changing the term "mental retardation" within the broader framework of three distinct processes: naming (terminology), defining, and classifying. The current status of each process is described, especially as represented in the 1992 American Association on Mental Retardation manual. Guiding…

This discussion of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) points out ICIDH merits, applications, and problems concerning definitions of basic terms of the ICIDH. It suggests that the model of the consequences of disease underlying the ICIDH should be developed further to a…

This rebuttal of a response to the author's original article on improved classification of stuttering in the context of disability, impairment, and handicap, stresses that the model originally proposed carefully distinguishes the two major aspects of stuttering and offers definitions of impairment, disability, and handicap consistent with the…

It is considered that television as a medium presented a great incentive for change to the global political movement in 1968. In those years, television achieved a notable level of power in terms of its informative, educational and political activity. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the communicative power of…

The terms goals, objectives, and functions are differentiated and classified based on the particular meanings each term represents in the field of education. The importance of understanding the distinctions is emphasized. (EC)

The problems of modeling a process as complex as reading are discussed, including such factors as the lack of agreement surrounding definitions of modeling, varying levels of rigor within and between models, the disjunctive categories within which models fall, and the difficulty of synthesis across fields which employ very different technical…

Wide ranges of functional abilities existing among the disabled led to the development and application of a quantitative method of evaluating severity of functional impairment for rehabilitative purposes. (BP)

Argues that the concepts "career" and "dual-career marriage" are loosely defined in the literature, hindering the comparability of findings and accumulation of scientific knowledge. Supports this assertion with a review of recent articles. Finds sociological and psychological levels of analysis not clearly differentiated, with researchers assuming…

Presents a general definition of a system; outlines a collection of properties identified through a review of the literature to be used as a criterion for determining whether an aggregation of objects is a system; and tests a computer-based system against the checklist to see how it measures up. (MBR)

Despite much effort by scholars, the definition of play remains a problem. Observers of preschool children tend to rate constructive activities as play; this has implications for play criteria. Types of play recorded may be appreciably affected by the time frame of observations and the use or lack of supplementary interviews. (RH)

A classification system of mental retardation is proposed based on etiology and IQs at least two standard deviations below the population mean. Social competence and performance capabilities of individuals with subaverage IQs are removed from definitional status and given prominence as correlates of class membership. (Author/CL)

In Study 1, 85 percent of 248 third-, fifth-, and twelfth- grade students identified as normal could have been classified learning disabled (LD). In Study 2, 88 percent of a low achieving fourth grade sample could have been identified as LD, with 4 percent not meeting any criteria for classification. (Author/CL)

Discussions about how to use and analyze transcripts inevitably include how to classify and measure individual courses and how to aggregate and measure groups of courses in a meaningful way. The Secondary School Taxonomy (SST) was developed in the 1980s by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as a framework for aggregating and…

Author first outlines what constitutes community action" and then suggests three broad categories into which most examples of such action may be placed. (Editor/MB)