Finds the author most effective when recounting personal experiences of dealing with regulations and bureaucratic procedures of adoption. Finds the book ineffective as a critique of adoption because of a fallacious premise that there is a shortage of children available for those waiting to adopt due to a defective adoption system. (Author/SD)

This article describes two workshops that explained the use of prenatal testing and genetic information to inform choices in pregnancy to people with learning difficulties, explored the issues with them, and describe the contribution subsequently made by these people to a British national conference on this subject. (Contains references.)…

Criterion validity of the Sexual and Physical Abuse Questionnaire was investigated in 134 psychiatric patients using the Structured Trauma Interview. The measures of agreement and the predictive measures of the questionnaire were satisfactory, particularly with sexual abuse. Positive answering increased odds for sexual abuse by a factor of…

A study involving 93 children (ages 10-12), 295 with poor reading skills, found many children with dyslexia and some garden-variety poor readers showed significant left neglect on the Clock Drawing Test. In poor readers with dyslexia, spatial construction deficits were observed like those of parents with acquired right-hemisphere lesions.…

Describes a placement test for incoming college students and its holistic scoring procedures. (MG)

Describes issues facing policymakers dealing with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic. Addresses six challenges for policymakers: (1) protecting people from discrimination; (2) designing testing and screening programs; (3) developing safe and effective antiviral drugs; (4) planning for future vaccine trials; (5) organizing and…

Issues in current methods of identifying gifted students include the referral process (e.g., problems with establishing a referral rate) and selection standards (problems of criteria, educational setting, level, bias, instruments, and decisions). An ongoing continuing screening process and education of decision makers about sound measurement…

To help physicians select appropriate screening tests for early childhood identification of developmental disabilities, 19 screening tests were administered by a pediatrician and rated by a panel of pediatricians and a special educator. Five of the tests were identified that approached standards for educational and psychological tests. (TJH)

A computer program, DIAL-LOG, was developed to assist users of DIAL-R, a widely used screening test, in the scoring of young children's performance. The program generates screening reports, suggests appropriate learning objectives and activities, and builds a file of results for up to 200 children at four age levels. (RH)

"Profiles in Listening and Reading" is presented as a screening test assessing listening and reading comprehension of extended discourse, based on the sentence verification technique. A study of 60 seventh graders and another study of 166 fourth, sixth, and eighth graders show some promise for the test's validity and diagnostic usefulness.…

Tested preassessment screening procedure to evaluate sensory-motor and perceptual encoding processes of children referred for psychoeducational assessment. Compared assessment procedures and outcomes for 18 children screened for encoding deficits and for 23 children whose psychoeducational evalution did not include screening. Results demonstrated…

Argues that sensory screening does not identify children at risk for reading or learning disability, and that sensory training does not improve reading or learning. (RAE)

The study assessed the utility of different factor structures of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised in differentiating Israeli male students (ages 6-16) with learning disability from children with emotional disturbance. Based on several comparisons the results indicated that only the modified A.S. Kaufman's factor structure…

Research identifying sequential processing deficits in students with reading learning disabilities is discussed, and the research is related to the screening of preschoolers at risk for reading deficits, using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. (Author/JDD)

Published opinions of acknowledged leaders in the field of mental retardation in the Soviet Union were reviewed. Basic concepts of the nature and causes of mental retardation, methods of screening, accepted classifications of persons with mental retardation, and educational facilities are described. Some comparisons with American theoretical and…