The development and preliminary evaluation of a screening test to detect school learning problems.

The Einstein Assessment of School-Related Skills was developed to aid pediatricians and other professionals in the identification of children who are at risk for, or are exhibiting, school learning difficulties. This brief (7-10 minutes) screening instrument measures reading, arithmetic, auditory memory, language cognition, and visual-motor abilities of children in grades K-5. The Einstein Assessment was standardized on 1665 nonhandicapped and 116 learning-disabled children in grades K-5. The median percent of nonhandicapped children in grades 2-5 passing was 78% in the fall and 74% in the spring, compared with 18% and 14% of the learning-disabled children (numbers of diagnosed learning-disabled children in grades K-1 were too small for analysis). The median test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.94. These data provide preliminary support for the Einstein as a screening test for school learning difficulty.