The University of New South Wales (Australia) has established the Vision Education Centre, a clinic designed to attract more pediatric patients for care by senior optometry students. The center uses interactive learning principles to teach elementary school children about optics, provides screening, and offers research opportunities. (MSE)

Sixty-two children (ages four and five) with mild mental retardation or learning disabilities were presented six cognitive tasks including two memory, three oddity, and a word definition task. Discriminant function analyses resulted in classification accuracy levels of 97% for children with mild mental retardation, 84% for children with learning…

A discussion of advancements in diagnosis of periodontal diseases looks first at the screening process, reviews specific periodontal diseases and their clinical signs and symptoms, and explains both traditional and newly developed diagnostic tests. A framework for understanding the tests' clinical usefulness is also presented. (MSE)

The Early Screening Inventory is designed to identify English- or Spanish-speaking children, ages 4-6, who may need special education services. The instrument measures the ability to acquire new skills in the areas of visual-motor/adaptive, language/cognition, and gross-motor/body-awareness. This paper describes administration, summation of data,…

Second-grade children (n=603) were rated by teachers, and ratings were correlated with reading, spelling, and intelligence in the third grade. Results indicated that teachers were quite accurate in their judgment of low achievement but less so in their judgment of specific reading difficulties. (DB)

The initial psychometric properties of the Assessment for Dual Diagnosis (ADD), a new scale designed to screen for psychopathology in individuals with mild and moderate mental retardation, was examined. The ADD was found to have high stability across raters, high stability over time, and good internal consistency. (Author/DB)

Discusses the five major concerns that govern a school nurse's thinking in managing head louse infestations, including dispelling misconceptions about head lice; ensuring that infestations are not missed; ensuring that parents understand instructions for effective treatment; educating the community about the correct use of pediculicides; and…

Studies of variables predicting familial breast cancer (N=59) were analyzed to develop screening recommendations for women with nonhereditary familial breast cancer present. The pooled relative risk (RR) and cumulative probability were used to estimate risk. Data and conclusions are presented. Recommendations for screening and counseling are…

Examines the relationship and predictive power of the Early Language Milestone Scale-2 (ELM-2)and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II (BSID-II). Both scales were administered to 90 infants at risk for developmental delay due to prematurity and low birth weight. Results of the ELM-2 correlated with BSID-II scores of infants 12 months of age.…

Development, pilot testing, and validation of a 20-item screening test for limited-English-speaking Australian university students, designed to be easily administered to large groups, are described. Although developed with medical students, the test is recommended for disciplines with significant enrollments of nonnative English speakers.…

Investigates validity of the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) measuring characteristics of individuals with autism, and the Pervasive Developmental Disorder Rating Scale (PDDRS) measuring pervasive developmental disorders. Results showed both instruments significantly discriminated between participants with autistic disorder and children with…

This study examined test characteristics of the Pediatric Language Acquisition Screening Tool for Early Referral-Revised (PLASTER-R), a set of developmental questionnaires for children 3 to 60 months of age. The PLASTER-R was moderately to highly successful in identifying children within normal limits for language development. Test-retest…

This article presents definitions of terms and issues involved in early identification of social/emotional competence in young children. Screening tools for identifying social/emotional difficulties in the birth to 3-year-old population are reviewed and recommendations are made for effective early identification and intervention systems. (Contains…

Presents findings from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000 about state- and district-level policies and school-level programs and services related to the following faculty and staff health promotion issues: required health examinations and screenings, other health screenings, services and programs, coordination and collaboration,…

Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2000 and 2002, we compared potential and realized use of health care for a national sample of working-age women with cognitive disabilities. Despite having similar likelihoods of potential access to health care as compared to nondisabled women, they had markedly worse rates of receiving…