About 40 years since the first controlled study, screening and brief intervention (SBI) are being disseminated into practice. But many unanswered questions remain. Studies in this special issue address what we know and don't know about alcohol and drug SBI, cost-effectiveness, patient preferences, education for clinicians, quality performance…

Reynolds and Nicolson ("Dyslexia," 2007; 13: 78-96) claim to show that the "dyslexia dyspraxia attention-deficit treatment" (DDAT) benefits children with reading difficulties. However, Rack, Snowling, Hulme, and Gibbs ("Dyslexia," 2007; 13: 97-104) argue that because this study did not include an untrained control group then "all that needs to be…

Recent research indicates that adjudicated female youth have higher rates of mental health problems and histories of trauma exposure and abuse relative to adjudicated male youth. These differences are important for gender-specific assessment, intervention, and management strategies. We replicated a subtyping strategy for adjudicated female youth…

This study explored clinical and nonclinical predictors of inpatient hospital admission decisions across a sample of children in foster care over 4 years (N = 13,245). Forty-eight percent of participants were female and the mean age was 13.4 (SD = 3.5 years). Optimal data analysis (Yarnold & Soltysik, 2005) was used to construct a nonlinear…

There is an urgent need for early identification of depressed individuals so that they may be found and helped in time. Childhood depression is often masked by problems in school, and as a result, these children usually go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. It has been found that drawings by depressed patients have distinct patterns which are rated…

This directory lists over 200 interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing in Virginia who have passed either national certification or state level screening. Introductory material first lists services provided by the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and then offers guidelines which address: what an interpreter is; how to…

Intended for individuals wishing to be qualified as Deaf Interpreters by the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening (VQAS) program of the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, this monograph describes the program in question-and-answer format. It addresses the following topics: what the VQAS is; who administers the VQAS; the…

A study explored the possibility for the use of a modification of the Stroop test (a cognitive instrument that relies on the production of spontaneous responses) as a selection screening instrument in programs for students with public speaking anxiety. Subjects, 44 students in the special public speaking anxiety sections and 63 students enrolled…

This theme issue focuses on academic competitions for academically talented youth. It lists approximately 30 selected competitions from a variety of academic areas, describing their eligible grade levels, types of projects or tests involved, fees, awards, and deadlines. An article describes the National Merit Scholarship Program and use of the…

This booklet presents a screening device to identify quickly those students who may qualify for special help but who have not been referred for testing, identification, and receiving of special education resources. The booklet notes that the original test consisted of 20 sentences, but that only one sentence gave students known to have severe…

The AGS Early Screening Profiles (AGS:ESP) instrument (P. Harrison, 1990) has been introduced recently as a screening instrument for predicting mental ability. A study was conducted to determine the degree of concurrent validity between the AGS:ESP and the Stanford Binet Fourth Edition (SB:FE), an instrument often used by psychologists to detect…

Elder abuse is recognized as an under-detected and under-reported social problem. Difficulties in detecting elder abuse are compounded by the lack of a standardized, psychometrically valid instrument for case finding. The development of the Hwalek-Sengstock Elder Abuse Screening Test (H-S/EAST) followed a larger effort to identify indicators and…

The Psychological Screening Inventory (PSI) is useful when there is limited time and resources in mental health settings and counseling centers for the screening of psychological maladjustments. However, few studies have provided norms for Mexican-Americans, and no known study has investigated PSI results as a function of acculturation level. This…

An item analysis of Harris' scoring system for the Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Man Test was conducted by comparing sets of protocols obtained in the early fall of kindergarten from children whose overall in-class academic performance placed them either in an at-risk category (N=21) or at the top of their class (N=38) by the end of the school year.…

The position paper examines issues related to serving behaviorally impaired (BI) students in rural areas. Under-identification of BI students in rural areas is noted and possible reasons (such as questions about the adequacy of existing screening procedures) are suggested. Obstacles to service delivery are pointed out, as is the need for a more…