The West Riding Screening Six Years On

Summary

In 1973 the former West Riding Authority attempted to screen all children of top infant age for educational and related handicaps. The present study followed up six years later all the children identified by that screening who now live within the boundaries of the Kirklees Authority. The effectiveness of the screening was evaluated against three criteria — reading age at 13‐plus, referral to the School Psychological Service and placement in special education, with particular attention being given to the ratios of ‘false‐positives’ and ‘false‐negatives’ for the chosen criteria. It is concluded that, while screening procedures using this kind of model do identify a more handicapped group, their error rates for both ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are so high as to render them ineffective.