INSTRUMENT FOR LOCATING STUDENTS WITH SUSPECTED LEARNING-DISABILITIES- A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH

The instrument to locate students with learning disabilities was devel oped to create equality and uniformity, so that such difficulties coul d be spotted independently of socialization factors, teachers and pare nts to whom the student had been exposed. The instrument was developed on the basis of research that defines the reading rate of students wi th reading disabilities in words per minute, the minimum number of err ors for locating writing disabilities, and the number of answers and l ines a student uses to reconstruct the content of a passage adapted to his or her age level. The research carried out in order to construct the instrument is the first to attempt to quantify disability, and on this basis to construct an instrument to locate students with disabili ties in reading, writing and visual recall. The procedure can be carri ed out for a whole class in a single lesson period. One indirect concl usion from the research is that disability indicators remain with the learning disabled regardless of time since diagnosis or remedial help. Other implications related to combining the quantity component in dia gnoses of degrees of difference in the disability identified, and in e xtra examination time for the learning disabled. The instrument should solve the problem of locating students with difficulty reading, writi ng or in visual recall, due to disability. Students thus identified wi ll be directed to individual diagnosis to find out whether their diffi culties are primary or secondary (e.g. a new immigrant who still has t rouble with Hebrew). A personal corrective programme can then be const ructed.