Gifted students with disabling conditions remain a major group of underserved and understimulated youth. This digest stresses the importance of both accommodating the disability appropriately while recognizing and nurturing the individual's intellectual strengths. Discussion of assessment is followed by a series of lists intended to assist parents…

This briefing paper reviews the special education evaluation process for children with disabilities. It discusses the purpose of an evaluation and who is involved in an evaluation. An explanation of the steps of the process includes: (1) using what is known about a child by looking at a child's school file and recent test scores; (2) collecting…

Problems in providing educational services that comply with P.L. 94-142, the Education For All Handicapped Children Act, to children in psychiatric hospitals center on least restrictive environment, treatment coordination, and individuaized education programs (IEPs). Recommendations are made for IEP development, jurisdiction, procedures and…

Current methods of classifying moderately educational subnormal [ESN (M)] children do not distinguish between organic and cultural causes of moderate retardation. Two experimental studies, based on the techniques of Vygotsky, are described as an attempt to move toward redefinition of this classification. (Note: Page f...=fiche numbers.) (BW)

One of the major goals of the Jamaican Early Stimulation Project is to develop a low cost model for providing early identification of disability and intervention services. Journal availability: see EC 133 861. (Author)

Aspects considered include cognitive and social development, the preschool prediction of learning disabilities, patterns of environmental processes in learning disabilities and mental retardation, environmental disadvantages, and biological determinants. (Author/DLS)

Two studies compared the performance of Puerto Rican and African American Head Start children (total n=134) on familiar (description) and unfamiliar (one word labeling) test tasks. Results indicated children performed better on the familiar test task, which was also more sensitive in differentiating typically developing children from those with…

Teachers from a residential school (n=30) and a public school district (n=13) that serve children with visual impairments read scenarios of children with various eye conditions and abilities, and chose a primary literacy medium for each child. The teachers differed in their attitudes toward the use of braille. (Author/CR)

A review of 10 studies on the rates of referral for intervention or assessment of students from three racial groups (Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic), found the mean risk ratios comparing the referral rates between African American and Caucasian students were significantly different from zero. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This study examined whether raising a child with Down's syndrome affects a family (n=34) differently than does raising a child with another developmental disability (n=74). Results found that long-term adjustment to raising children with other disabilities was comparable to that of raising children with Down's syndrome. (CR)

Discusses the use of a sociocultural perspective on learning and learning disabilities for understanding learning problems within culturally diverse groups. Reviews assumptions about ethnicity and culture (supposed homogeneity within cultures) and describes ways to distinguish ethnicity and culture. Discusses implications for assessment,…

Twenty-two children with mild mental retardation, 27 children with learning disabilities, and 49 nondisabled peers (ages 4-5) were presented with a battery of eight cognitive tasks being considered for inclusion in a new screening test. Results found the components measured different cognitive tasks and led to accurate individual classification…

Discusses the development of informal mathematics in young children, the problems with formal mathematics instruction, how the traditional approach fails to address mathematics learning disabilities, and how a developmental perspective can assist in the identification and treatment of students with mathematics learning disabilities. (CR)

Noting a high incidence of learning disabilities among students with visual impairments, this article compares definitions of the two conditions. Common assessment approaches are discussed and those inappropriate for students with low vision or blindness are identified. Suggested intervention approaches include adaptation of the environment,…

This article examines the needs of students with minimal hearing loss (MHL) and offers practical suggestions to teachers. It considers legal requirements, reasons for under identification of children with MHL, signs of MHL, effects of MHL, classroom factors affecting MHL, minimizing background noise and improving listening conditions, and…