Difficulty learning to read presents many struggles for children and their families, and evaluation of parental perspectives of the dyslexia assessment process within the United States represents an under-researched area. This study sought to investigate how parental perspectives change during their child's dyslexia assessment. Six hundred one…

The purpose of this article is to explore the intersectionality of autism and sociocultural factors as well as discuss the complexities associated with appropriate assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. Based on a review of the literature, the authors present a brief history of the emergence of the term autism and highlight factors that have…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often diagnosed by clinical practitioners with criteria from the American Psychiatric Association, but an educational diagnosis is usually based on state special education law and is geared towards addressing concerns within schools. The current study aims to examine the extent to which the clinical diagnosis of…

Although federal law has provided guidelines for autism eligibility for special education, school-based autism assessment and eligibility vary widely across states and identification continues to lag behind national prevalence data. The main role of the school psychologist continues to be conducting evaluations for special education eligibility,…

While implementation efforts using a Response to Intervention (RtI) model to increase reading instruction are becoming widely used, more administrators and teachers are looking to learn effective RtI practices to support learning in mathematics. This article explores some of the key elements of RtI practices in mathematics, including screening for…

Surveyed gifted education teachers' and supervisors' perceptions of current gifted reevaluation practices. Results showed most gifted educators were not in agreement with the practice of using gifted reevaluations to reestablish program eligibility. Instead, they would prefer to get information relevant to program evaluation, program planning, and…

Examined ability of Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (WJPEB) to identify learning-disabled (LD) students. Administered WJPEB to 71 previously identified LD students and evaluated cluster score performance. Used three methods of obtaining discrepancies; slightly more than one-half of LD students were identified. Memory deficits were…

Describes factors that may bias psychoeducational decision making and discusses three heuristic principles that affect decision making. Discusses means by which school psychologists can be made aware of these heuristic principles and encouraged to consider them when making psychoeducational decisions. Also discusses methods by which bias in…

Compared the WISC-R performance of children ranging in age from 6-6 to 15-10, referred to a university center for suspected learning disabilities, with that of clinically-defined groups of learning disabled children. The university center children were bound to have WISC-R profiles similar to those of the learning disabled children. (Author)

Reviews research on major behavior disorders in children for school psychologists who are required to evaluate severity of such disorders. Review suggests five criteria by which severity of children's behavior disorders can be evaluated: age of onset, number of settings in which problem occurs, number of coexisting disorders, pattern of problem,…

Examined how emerging body of knowledge regarding nature, prevalence, assessment, and treatment of childhood depression compares with perceptions and practices of school psychologists. Identified need for school psychologists to define concept of childhood depression. Advocates use of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (third…

Tested the utility of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) subscales in differentiating between children with Attentional Deficit Disorder (ADD) (N=24) and children with other problems (N=19). Results indicated that scores on three WISC-R subscales--Arithmetic, Digit Span, and Coding--were significantly lower among the ADD…

Current procedures for diagnosing perceptual and language deficits in academic underachievement have resulted in a categorical expression--learning disabilities. The contention is offered that learning disabilities so ascertained not constitute a diagnosable entity. Two features are described that could become central in a diagnosable entity…

Explores several controversial issues surrounding the identification of students as both gifted and learning disabled. Argues against the use of profile analysis to identify gifted students with learning disabilities. Proposes guidelines for school psychologists to identify students with intellectual gifts and learning disabilities, and provides…

Investigates parents' comprehension of psychological reports. As in an earlier study with teachers, it was found that parents better comprehended reports that organize information by functional domain, that describe strengths and problems in clear behavioural terms, that describe the child's learning style fully, and that state specific and…