A longitudinal study was designed to develop and evaluate a screening instrument of developmental delay based on parental assessment of 18-month-old children. The reliability and validity of a parental screening instrument based on the Griffiths Mental Developmental Scale was investigated with a sample of 2,783 Swedish children out of a population…

The paper reports on a 1 year followup study to establish the short term predictive validity of an early identification system used in London, Ontario (Canada) for kindergarten and first grade high risk students. Ratings of the students by the evaluation teams in January were compared with the students' actual placements as of the following…

To identify classroom behaviors that differentiate primary-level students with learning disabilities (LD) from their nondisabled peers, two scales of 83 items each were devised and piloted. Two subscales and 18 individual items were found to discriminate students later classified as LD and those referred but not subsequently classified as LD.…

This study, involving 1,069 children (ages 9-14) referred for evaluation of learning disability, used 3 definitions of reading disability to provide criteria for 5 groups of children based on discrepancy between intelligence quotient (IQ) and academic achievement. Results question the validity of segregating children with reading deficiencies…

The study evaluated the utility of Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) subtests in differentiating learning-disabled children from students with other handicapping conditions, and compared K-ABC subtests with Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised subtests. Results showed that subtest scores did not enhance differential…

Two studies addressing the clinical validity of discrepancy criteria for identification of children with developmental language disorders (DLD) are reported: one with 256 preschoolers clinically defined as DLD, and one with 363 8-year-old controls. Factors contributing to underidentification in Study 1 and overidentification in Study 2 are…

The preliminary report--two-thirds of which consists of tabular data--describes an early identification system used in London, Ontario (Canada) for kindergarten and first grade high risk students, and provides some data bearing on the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the system. Simple descriptive summaries of some characteristics…

The Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) and an expressive language measure were administered to 114 children (aged 24 to 74 months) suspected of developmental difficulties. The DDST did not identify the majority of children who failed the expressive language screening, even after cutoff scores were made more rigorous. (Author/JDD)

This study assessed the degree of agreement between teacher report and an adapted Adaptive Behavior Scale in the identification of mental retardation and associated learning difficulties in 257 young Bahraini school children. Findings indicated that the instrument is sensitive in identification of children with mental retardation and exhibits high…

This study was designed to identify differences in the neurological functioning of three groups of children with developmental dyslexia and to assess whether any of the groups were characterized by a particular pattern of neurological soft signs. Subjects were 88 children, aged 11-14, who were identified as developmentally dyslexic. The children…

Two studies with 20 hearing-impaired and 10 normal-hearing adults found that the Hearing Performance Inventory-Revised was insensitive to differences in hearing-impaired listeners' consonant-recognition ability, whereas the Nonsense Syllable Test was sensitive to differences in overall consonant-recognition ability for normal-hearing and…

This study explored whether standard administration and scoring of conventional articulation tests accurately identified 20 children (ages 5-9) as phonologically disordered and whether test data established severity levels and programing needs. Tests correctly identified the phonological disorders but failed to reliably differentiate severity…

The application of a newly developed instrument for the assessment of patient function in rehabilitation is discussed. The 18-item Functional Independence Measure (FIM) was used to rate 187 patients requiring inpatient rehabilitation. Practical uses of the FIM are discussed in view of its satisfactory reliability and validity. (SLD)

This one-page abstract summarizes "The Miller Assessment for Preschoolers: A Longitudinal and Predictive Study" by Lucy Miller, which examined the predictive validity of an early childhood screening instrument to identify children who have or are at risk of developing handicapping conditions. The Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP)…

Epidemiological techniques were used to reanalyze studies that had longitudinally tracked preschool or kindergarten children, to determine results of screens for the identification of educationally at-risk children. A paradigm shift is recommended, away from longitudinal studies for predictive validity and toward risk analysis and interpretation.…