A special education administrator raises questions about separating learning-disabled students from the regular education classroom for specialized instruction, proposes strategies to accommodate learning difference and address specific learning needs in the regular instructional program, and suggests the need to reevaluate the benefits derived…

The role and training of a child specialist, a generalist concerned with the child's total behavior and life, in the education of learning disabled children are examined. Characteristics of successful candidates are noted, as well as the importance of intensive supervisory and advisement work. (CL)

Scores of 24 children with constitutional short stature on intellectual, academic, and visual motor functioning were compared to those of 23 subjects with normal height for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Contrary to conclusions of uncontrolled studies, data showed short and control groups to be comparable on all variables. (Author/CL)

The paper examined the extent to which IQ scores of learning disability groups can be explained by the bivariate normal probability distribution. (CL)

Research on the relationship of orthography and reading disabilities is reviewed, and it is concluded that the idiosyncratic features of English spelling and writing are not responsible for reading disabilities among American children. (CL)

Learning disabled students were taught to use the LOGO computer graphics language in an integrated fourth- and fifth-grade setting. Instructional strategies (such as providing many reviews) along with the intrinsically motivating nature of LOGO were thought to be responsible for the success. (CL)

A review of research on the effects of alcohol consumption by pregnant women supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's warning about the possible negative effects (learning disabilities, hyperactivity, short attention span, and emotional liability) of children. (Author/CL)

Educational therapy is an approach to alleviating a wide range of educationally related problems through consideration of the four foci: specific nature of academics, relationship between student and academics, relationship between therapist and student, and the triadic relationship of therapist, student, and academic work. (CL)

Examination of the predictive validity of the Gesell School Readiness Screening Test with 84 kindergarten-age children found the procedure effective in predicting child success or failure in kindergarten and that within four-six years the chronological age of children entering kindergarten is unrelated to eventual success of failure in…

In a simulated learning disability care program presented to 24 experienced school psychologists, only 17 of the 744 possible diagnostic main effects and two-way interactions which might indicate bias were found to be significant, with seven differences being expected by chance. No statements about intelligence, classroom behavior, or social…

Four reading disabled children were given eight sessions of ocular motor training with reinforcement and eight sessions without reinforcement. Two reading disabled control Ss were treated similarly but received no ocular motor training. Results demonstrated that reinforcement can improve ocular motor skills, which in turn elevates reading…

The study investigated the efficacy of a package of cognitive self-control procedures for ameliorating the attentional deficits of 12-year-old learning disabled children. Performance on measures of reading, attention, an inhibitory control was improved as a function of the cognitive self-instructional training. The improvement continued to sustain…

Regular and special elementary level educators completed questionnaires on specific social skills critical for success in the mainstream setting. Three general social skill areas and 15 competencies were identified. Differences between regular and special educators and primary and intermediate level teachers were identified. (Author/CL)

The Multidimensional Actuarial Classification system, which consists of routines and decision making procedures applied to weighting of standardized psychometric, observational, and interview data, was used to classify 200 children (6-16 years old) referred for psychological evaluation. Seven distinct patterns emerged, supporting the approach's…

A significant difference was found between 45 learning disabled Ss and 45 normal Ss (grades two-four) in discriminating between orthographically legitimate and orthographically illegitimate pairs of letter patterns. The ability to discriminate correlated with performance of the reading section of the Wide Range Achievement Test. (Author/CL)