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The authors report findings on reading and IQ from a contemporary study of 145 individually tested incarcerated men and women in two maximum-security prisons in Louisiana. To their knowledge this study is the first to use the definition of dyslexia from the First Step Act (FSA) and the first to incorporate an IQ measure to differentiate those with dyslexia from individuals with cognitive impairment. The authors' findings indicate that almost half (47%) of the participants are classified as having dyslexia, 36% proficient, and 17% cognitive impairment. Both dyslexic prisoners and nondyslexic prisoners reported academic and behavioral problems in school that led to decreased years in school and decreased high school graduation rates, with 87% reporting dropping out of school with many inmates dropping out in middle school (mean age of completion of 9.6 years of school), 97% reporting having been in special education or received accommodations, and 59% having failed to receive a high school diploma or equivalency. The authors note that although the FSA calls for the Bureau of Prisons to screen prisoners for dyslexia using a screener that is evidence-based, with proven psychometrics for validity, efficiency and low cost, as well as readily available, a screener is not a diagnostic instrument and we discuss the next steps after inmates are screened as being dyslexic.

Identifying change at the individual level is an important goal for researchers, educators, and clinicians. We present a set of statistical procedures for identifying individuals who depart from a normative change. Using Latent Change Scores models (LCS), we illustrate how the Individual Likelihood computed from a statistical model for change ("IL") and from an alternative unrestricted model ("ILsat") can be used to identify atypical trajectories in situations with several measurement occasions. Using LCS and linear regression, we also show how the observed and latent change residuals can be used to identify atypical individual change between 2 measurement occasions. We apply these methods to a measure of general verbal ability (from WISC-R), from a large sample of individuals assessed every 2 years from Grade 1 to 9. We demonstrate the efficiency of these techniques, illustrate their use to identify individual change in longitudinal data, and discuss potential applications in developmental research.

We systematically assessed the relationships between growth of four components of verbal ability--Information, Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised--and longitudinal growth from Grades 1 to 9 of the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Passage Comprehension subtest while controlling for Word Identification and Word Attack, using multilevel growth models on a sample of 414 children. Growth was assessed over all grades (1-9), and separately for early grades (1-5) and later grades (5-9). Over all grades, growth in Word Identification had a substantial standardized loading to Passage Comprehension, and all four verbal abilities had smaller, but significant standardized loadings to Passage Comprehension (p < 0.05), with Information and Vocabulary having slightly higher loadings than Similarities and Comprehension. For early grades, results were similar to the overall results, with the exception of Vocabulary, which had a nonsignificant loading to Passage Comprehension. For later grades, Word Identification again had the largest, but substantially smaller standardized loading on Passage Comprehension and standardized loadings of all four verbal abilities were statistically significant with Vocabulary and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) Comprehension having appreciably higher loadings than in the previous analyses. Conversation- and interaction-based intervention and instruction in oral language in general, and vocabulary in particular throughout early childhood and continuing throughout the school years, combined with evidence-based instruction that systematically develops the skills of phonologic awareness, decoding, word reading, fluency, and comprehension in school, may provide a pathway to reducing the achievement gap in reading.

Many children and adults have specific reading disabilities; insight into the brain structure underlying these difficulties is evolving from imaging. Previous research highlights the left temporal-parietal white matter as important in reading, yet the degree of involvement of other areas remains unclear. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and voxel-based analysis were used to examine correlations between reading ability and tissue structure in healthy adolescents and young adults (n = 136) with a range of reading ability. Three complementary reading scores (word reading, decoding, and reading fluency) yielded positive correlations with fractional anisotropy (FA) that spanned bilateral brain regions, particularly in the frontal lobes, but also included the thalamus and parietal and temporal areas. An analysis of the unique effects of each reading assessment revealed that most of the variance in FA values could be attributed to sight word reading ability. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

A study involving boys (grades 4-7) who were highly gifted (n=18), low gifted (n=17), had learning disabilities (n=26), and were typical (n=26), found highly gifted boys exhibited levels of behavioral problems similar to those with learning disabilities, whereas low gifted boys had lower levels than boys with learning disabilities. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Investigates the development of tonal pattern discrimination in 24 college musicians, 24 college nonmusicians, and 38 children in the first grade. Demonstrates that college nonmusicians were no more accurate although they responded to some item types faster than the first-grade group. Includes references. (CMK)

Considers the suitability of criteria-specific rating scales in the selection of high school students for participation in an honors ensemble. Criteria-specific music-performance rating scales include written descriptions of specific levels of performance rather than simple numerical notations. Concludes that these scales can be used with substantial reliability. (MJP)

Investigates two problems: (1) do learning effects accrue in accuracy or response time when computerized tests are administered in two sessions? and (2) what are the effects of tonal pattern order and contour types on average item difficulty and length of response time for children with different levels of achievement? (DSK)