In addition to explaining challenging behaviour by way of behaviour analytic, functional analyses, challenging behaviour is increasingly explained by way of psychiatric symptomatology. According to some researchers, the two approaches complement each other, as psychiatric symptomatology may form a motivational basis for the individual's response…

Prison populations have been identified as having elevated levels of problem gambling prevalence, and screening for problem gambling may provide an opportunity to identify and address a behavior that may otherwise lead to re-offending. A problem gambling screen for this purpose would need to be brief, simple to score, and be able to be…

The connection that critics make between medical genetics and eugenics is historically fallacious. Activists on the political right are as mistaken as activists on the political left: Genetic screening was not eugenics in the past, is not eugenics in the present, and, unless its technological systems become radically transformed, will not be…

Convergences and divergences between four of the most commonly used checklists for psychiatric disorders (the Reiss Screen, The Mini PAS-ADD, the DASH-II, and the ADD) were examined. We screened 181 individuals with intellectual disability for psychiatric disorders with the four checklists and compared the results on the checklists. The…

There is strong consensus in California and in the country around the notions of equal opportunity for all children, and giving kids a chance of having it better than their parents. The reality in California is that most families lack the means and resources to provide their children with the basic building blocks of a productive life in the 21st…

This study extends recent findings of a relationship between the relative age of students among their peers and their probability of disability classification. Using three nationally representative surveys spanning 1988-2004 and grades K-10, we find that an additional month of relative age decreases the likelihood of receiving special education…

Educators in the Chula Vista Elementary School District determined what kind of instruction students needed through a "response to intervention" (RTI) process, which provides extra help to struggling students with an aim of reducing the number of referrals to special education. As RTI catches on throughout the country, the district is on…

The Spanish KIDSCREEN follow-up study reassessed the Spanish baseline sample (n = 840) of the European KIDSCREEN study 3 years later (2006). The aims of this paper were to describe the KIDSCREEN follow-up study and the pilot test, and to analyze participation rates and representativeness. Instruments included the KIDSCREEN-52 HRQoL measure and a…

Recent literature notes a significant increase in students being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Yet, no uniform testing protocol exists. It is vital for students and educators that a unified testing process be created and established. This study investigated which ASD testing instruments were currently used in Southern California…

A significant body of research exists on the development of early literacy skills and their relationship to the development of literacy as a whole. Phonological awareness, orthographic processing, rapid automatized naming, phonological memory, and receptive vocabulary have all been shown to be predictive of early reading outcome measures. What is…

This technical report presents results from a cross-validation study designed to identify optimal cut scores when using easyCBM[R] reading tests in Oregon. The cross-validation study analyzes data from the 2009-2010 academic year for easyCBM[R] reading measures. A sample of approximately 2,000 students per grade, randomly split into two groups of…

The practice guide, "Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades," offers five specific recommendations to help educators identify struggling readers and implement evidence-based strategies to promote their reading achievement. This brief summary report…

Screening for early reading problems is a critical step in early intervention and prevention of later reading difficulties. Evaluative frameworks for determining the utility of a screening process are presented in the literature but have not been applied to many screening measures currently in use in numerous schools across the nation. In this…

The rates and associated features of suicidal ideation among 5,641 patients seeking routine, nonsuicide related care in an inner-city emergency department were examined. Approximately 8% of patients seeking routine care in the emergency department reported some form of suicidal ideation within the past 2 weeks. Suicidal ideation was common in…

It is difficult for busy health care providers to perform routine screening for older women's posttraumatic stress symptomatology. This difficulty is due, at least partially, to a paucity of instruments specifically tested on such a population. To address this issue, in this preliminary study we tested an abbreviated screen from the set of 20…