This paper presents results of analyses of a questionnaire constructed for parents to detect student motivational problems and behavior patterns which may suggest an attention deficit disorder. Cross tabulations and analyses of variance demonstrated the scale's power to identify children with attention deficits. (DB)

Ten speech-language pathology students judged five-second audiovisually recorded speech intervals as stuttered or nonstuttered in group and single-subject experiments. Results showed that judgment accuracy tended to increase after training, both for speakers used during the training process and unfamiliar speakers. Slight increases in interjudge…

The first in seven sets of guidelines based on the consensus of experts in the treatment of psychiatric and behavioral problems in mental retardation (MR) focuses on diagnosis and assessment. It includes the definition and levels of mental retardation, difficulties in diagnosing psychiatric and behavioral problems in the presence of MR, assessment…

Two studies on young children are reported that address the psychometric characteristics of the Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED). Results from the studies indicate that the SAED is a reliable and valid instrument for identifying young children who may qualify for the federal definition of emotional disturbance. (Contains…

This article discusses the differences between individuals with Asperger syndrome and gifted individuals. It describes the characteristics of students with Asperger syndrome, including highly literal speech, intensive focus, difficulties in social behavior, and inability to mind read. Characteristics of gifted students with Asperger syndrome are…

Specific reading disability/dyslexia is examined as the one type of learning disability for which research results are consistent enough to suggest a model. The implications of this model are considered and three types of learning disabilities are discussed: specific language impairments, specific reading disability/dyslexia, and specific math…

This study, with 180 deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers grouped into four age ranges, found highly significant interrelationships among the four categories of play and the four aspects of communicative development studied. The development of autosymbolic play, age of hearing loss identification, and symbolic object distribution accounted…

This commentary on a previous article that described the use of topological thinking in the field of mental retardation discusses appropriate scientific uses of typologies, what categories are and how they are used in social and biomedical sciences, and the importance of typologies for scientific and practical progress. (Contains extensive…

This rejoinder to a criticism of an article that decried the use of topological thinking in the mental retardation field argues that topological thinking is a form of psychological existentialism that offers a reductive approach to human development. It urges the inclusion of individual as well as group scores in studies. (Contains references.)…

Children and adolescents (N=199) with autistic disorder were audiologically evaluated. Mild to moderate hearing loss was diagnosed in 7.9 percent, with deafness diagnosed in 3.5 percent of all cases, which represented a prevalence considerably above that in the general population and comparable to the prevalence found in populations with mental…

This article presents evidence that the broad population of children classified as chronically ill is at increased risk for psychoeducational and language-learning disorders. It describes six health conditions in which language-learning disorders are often present and explores challenging issues for transdisciplinary service delivery. (Author/CR)

Three-year-old children (n=41) with mild learning problems and 41 typical children were given a battery consisting of seven simple cognitive tasks shown to contribute toward the differentiation of children with and without mild learning problems. Picture identification, oppositional concepts, identity discrimination, and semantic…

Thirteen incarcerated girls (ages 13-17) were tested following identification of language impairment to explore why they did not receive services prior to incarceration. Results indicate speech-language pathologists may be qualifying students based on a cognitive reference instead of a discrepancy formula based on age and level of language…

A panel of speech professionals was randomly presented with speech samples from four neurogenic and four developmental stutterers and was asked to classify them accordingly without any patient knowledge. Results support the view that, based on the patient's verbal output only, it is difficult to distinguish between neurogenic and developmental…

In this article, the author shares some insights on the characteristics of a person with Asperger's syndrome, a condition on the higher-functioning end of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Born in 1955, the author was raised in rural South Auckland. As a baby, she propelled herself around the floor on her stomach, using her limbs as flippers,…