"Diagnostic classification models" (DCM) are frequently promoted by psychometricians as important modelling alternatives for analyzing response data in situations where multivariate classifications of respondents are made on the basis of multiple postulated latent skills. In this review paper, a definitional boundary of the space of DCM…

Discusses problems in the process used by the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) to redefine mental retardation and substantive problems with various definitions of mental retardation, including the former and new 1992 AAMR definition. Recommended elements in a new educational definition of mental retardation are presented. (CR)

This paper examines the extent to which the 1992 American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) definition of mental retardation provides decision rules to guide clinicians and researchers in classification efforts. The paper examines concerns about the intelligence quotient criterion, the adaptive skill areas, and proposed differentiation by…

Arguments supporting the conceptual validity of learning disabilities are presented against the background of current definitional problems. The need to differentiate between classification and identification and the importance of a shared attribute definition are stressed. It is argued that a taxonomy of learning disabilities and related…

This article examines the concept of mild mental retardation and the confusion surrounding its etiology, prevalence, diagnosis, and educational "treatment." It concludes that mild mental retardation should be redefined in contextual terms: a person's relative difficulty in responding to the environment's cognitive demands. It recommends that the…

Notes that, more so than any other category of special education, children with serious emotional disturbance remain very much underidentified in schools and that both terminology and definition of serious emotional disturbance (SED) under current provisions of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are at least partly responsible for this…

Argues that an educational definition of mental retardation has to be sensitive to the motivational self-system and the self-regulatory processes that underpin performance of students with mental retardation. The theory of motivational orientation that explains the differences in students with intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation is…

This manual, the ninth edition of a regularly published definition and classification work on mental retardation retains some aspects of the system set forth in the eighth (1983) edition, but departs from previous editions in the following ways: (1) it attempts to express the changing understanding of what mental retardation is; (2) it formulates…

This paper discusses distinguishing learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from each other and from other problems of childhood; a new conceptual model and working definition for reading disability; distinction between the psychological construct of "attention" and ADHD, the disorder; and the need for a…

Past, present, and future concerns regarding the definition of learning disabilities (LD) are documented. Research on efforts to clarify the LD label is discussed, including the questionable utility of the discrepancy model. An approach is presented for operationalizing the definition of LD of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities.…

This manual, the 10th edition of a regularly published definition and classification work on mental retardation, presents five key assumptions upon which the definition of mental retardation is based and a theoretical model of five essential dimensions that explain mental retardation and how to use the companion system. These dimensions include…

Written for Iowa's school psychologists, the report examines current issues in mental retardation including the problem of definition, court actions affecting the schools, and trends in educational programming, evaluation, and diagnosis. Considered are reasons why mental retardation is difficult to define (such as the lack of an acceptable…

This paper reviews the literature on positive and negative aspects of diagnostic classification of children, or labeling. It reviews the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, which mandated that special education must be available to all children with disabilities. Definitional issues in diagnostic labeling of students with learning…

This handbook is intended to serve as a procedural guide for Utah school districts to improve the assessment and classification process for students who are behavior disordered. The handbook reviews Utah's definition of behavior disorders and explains some of the ambiguous terminology in the definition. The topic of social maladjustment is…

Describes Iowa's use of the term "mental disability" rather than mental retardation and an IQ cutoff score of 85 for classification of mental disability. Revised draft guidelines for the identification of mental disability are presented that contain four criteria, including an IQ cutoff score of 75. (CR)