Aim: To compare the occurrence of neurological soft signs (NSS) in children with specific developmental disorders of scholastic skills (SDDSS) and normal children. Methods: 36 cases of SDDSS were compared with 30 control children regarding sociodemographic and clinical variables and neurological soft signs. Results: Children with SDDSS had…

Assessment of adaptive behavior traditionally has been associated with the identification of individuals with mental retardation. Information on adaptive behavior increasingly is being used for comprehensive assessment, treatment planning, intervention, and program evaluation for individuals with various disorders. Data from the normative samples…

G. Senf's study of bisensory integration language tasks was modified and replicated with 52 normal and 52 learning disabled children. Results confirmed the original study except for a more consistent pattern for individual difference variables and failure to replicate the main effect of stimulus interpair presentation times. (Author/CL)

Findings revealed significant correlations between all three measures of visual motor development as well as those measures and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised Performance IQ. The VMI-Revised appeared appropriate for measuring paper/pencil fine motor aspects of visual perceptual development in children. (CL)

To further clarify the nature of sensory integrative dysfunction, 148 public school children (mean age 92.6, mean IQ 96.5) with learning disorders were first given a battery of sensorimotor, psycholinguistic, and cognitive tests, and factors were extrapolated. The test scores were also employed to generate step-wise regression equations predicting…

A group of 182 children (ages four through nine) with known or suspected sensory integrative dysfunction were assessed using tests and clinical observations to examine developmental dyspraxia. The study did not justify the existence of either a unitary function or different types of developmental dyspraxia. (Author/CH)

In this article, we examine the extent to which children with autism and children with learning difficulties can be discriminated from their responses to different patterns of sensory stimuli. Using an adapted version of the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), sensory processing was compared in 34 children with autism to 33 children with typical…

The study concerned the effects of induced interference, employing a backward masking paradigm, on the processing of sensory information and on the formation of perceptual-motor responses in 20 dyslexic and 20 normal children (mean age 8.2 years). (Author/PHR)

A review of research since Ayers' (1972) report on sensory integration (SI) concludes that SI is not supported as an effective treatment for academic problems of children with learning disabilities. It is not clear whether SI is more effective than perceptual-motor approaches or maturation alone. (SK)

This paper addresses early identification, services, supports, and intervention for young children, birth through 4 years, who demonstrate delays in development that may place them at risk for later identification as having a learning disability (LD). Such delays include atypical patterns of development in cognition, communication, emergent…

Discussed are the role of the sensory integration specialist in diagnosing and treating various disorders of sensory integration. (DB)

Discusses definitions of learning disabilities and strategies for identifying and accommodating learning disabled adults during job training. (SK)

This study compared the test-retest reliability of the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests and the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery--Children's Version. Both sets were administered twice to a group of 30 dysfunctional eight-year-old children. Findings are discussed in relation to reliability coefficients for normal as well as…

Findings from two studies of the relationship of writing to the integration of motor/kinesthetic and visual/perceptual concepts were used to develop a diagnostic screening measurement for writing disability. (PHR)

It was found that although learning disabled elementary children did more poorly than normal children at tasks involving intersensory and intrasensory matches, the psychological processes related to performance were, with one exception, similar between groups. (Author/CL)