Teacher and Parent Checklist Ratings with Learning-Disabled, Hyperactive, and Emotionally Disturbed Children

Developmental checklist parent and teacher ratings were obtained on children at a developmental clinic and in remedial programs in public schools. Ratings were also obtained on children falling into an auditory-visual learning disability subtype. Parent and teacher ratings were obtained on hyperactive and emotionally disturbed children evaluated at the developmental clinic. Significant differences were found between the control groups and each of the four clinical groups. The ratings also separated these clinical groups. The findings are discussed in terms of incidence, learning disability definition, variation between parent and teacher ratings, and learning disability subgroups. The need for a standardized, objective, and cost-effective method for identifying and classifying learning-disabled children is evident (Milofsky). This is especially true with the federal commitment toward remediation under Public Law 94-142. To date, efforts to describe and classify children's behavior have focused on psychiatric populations, and the primary dimensions studied by checklist have been in the areas of behavior disorders (Quay, 1977) and hyperactivity (Conners, 1973). A recent study employing parent checklist ratings used developmentally disabled children but also included subject