Despite recent advances in the development of instructional interventions, many students with significant learning problems do not benefit from them. This includes 25% to 50% of students with learning disabilities (LD). In this article, we identify five limitations of current instructional programs that may help to explain students' inadequate…

In this article, the authors consider the power and limitations of responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) for reducing the need for ongoing and intensive services for the segment of the school population traditionally identified as having a learning disability in mathematics. To assess the robustness of RTI, the authors describe four studies with…

A study employing a repeated measure crossover design found that 34 preschool handicapped students performed significantly better with familiar than unfamiliar examiners on tasks requiring a high level of symbolic mediation. No such differential performance was found on items demanding a low level of symbolic mediation. Differential performance in…

A study involving 50 educationally handicapped (EH), 37 learning disabled (LD), and 40 nonhandicapped (NH) children revealed that when measures were administered weekly over three consecutive weeks, NH subjects' variability was greater than either LD or EH subjects. When subjects were tested on three passages in one sitting, no reliable difference…

Investigates, in 34 handicapped preschoolers, the role of examiner familiarity in the performance of tasks requiring high or low levels of symbolic mediation. Subjects performed better with familiar examiners on tasks requiring high symbolic mediation; no differential performance was obtained on items requiring low symbolic mediation. (Author/RH)

Explored the effects of examiner familiarity, task complexity, and mode of response to the test performance of 79 speech and language impaired preschoolers who completed the Symbolic Mediation Test. Results showed children performed significantly better when tested by familiar examiners. Functioning did not depend on the task's complexity. (JAC)

Investigation of the effect of examiner unfamiliarity on the performance of eight learning-disabled (LD) and eight mentally retarded (MR) elementary school students on language tests revealed that, while LD subjects scored higher when tested in the familiar examiner condition, MR subjects scored similarly in the two examiner conditions. (Author/CB)

This study employed a multiple regression to predict examinees' differential performance when tested by familiar and unfamiliar examiners. Subjects were 32 preschool and school-age handicapped children, each of whom had been tested on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Functions, once by a familiar and once by an unfamiliar tester, within a…

Task complexity in terms of symbolic mediation (inner thought) as a determinant of differential test performance and the prediction of dissimilar functioning were examined. Preschool children with moderate to profound speech and/or language handicaps were tested using: (1) a sound-in-words subtest of the Test of Articulation (TA); (2) Action…

A language test and five psychosocial measures were used to evaluate the effect of examiners on 32 disabled preschool and school-age children who were moderately to profoundly speech impaired, or both. Results indicated that the children performed significantly better when tested by familiar examiners than by unfamiliar examiners. (Author/ABB)

Prior research indicates that language-handicapped children obtain higher test scores when tested by personally familiar examiners than when tested by personally unfamiliar examiners. The present investigation inquired whether this finding is due to examinees' actual differential performance across the two examiner conditions, or whether it is the…

Interactions and performances of 10 high-achieving third- and fourth-grade students on complex mathematics tasks were studied as a function of paring with other high-achieving (homogeneous) or low-achieving (heterogeneous pairing) students. Homogeneous dyads operate more collaboratively, generate more cognitive conflict, and create better quality…

A study investigated the mathematical problem-solving abilities of 18 fourth-graders with mathematics disabilities (MD) with and without comorbid reading disabilities (RD). Results demonstrated large deficits for both groups. However, the differences between students with and without RD were mediated by the level of problem solving and by…

Twenty special educators who taught pupils with mild and moderate disabilities implemented curriculum-based measurement and were periodically assessed for accuracy and given corrective feedback. Analyses indicated that systematic observation and feedback were associated with improvement in accuracy, especially on more difficult aspects of…