Children with CHARGE syndrome frequently exhibit moderate to severe behavior difficulties, and are often diagnosed with obsessive‐compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder, Tourette syndrome, and autism. Hartshorne and Cypher (2004) surveyed parents of 100 children with CHARGE worldwide and confirmed the prevalence of behaviors that are associated with these disorders. They also found behaviors that could be described as typical of persons who are deafblind. The present study examined whether the autistic‐like behaviors of children with CHARGE are more similar to those of children who are deafblind, to those of children who are autistic or are unique to CHARGE. Surveys including the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) were mailed to families of 204 children with CHARGE, and 160 usable surveys were returned (78%). Total scores on the ABC for children with CHARGE were significantly different from the norms for those with autism, and those who were deafblind. However, the variance for CHARGE was larger than for the normative groups, and 27.5% of those with CHARGE could be classified as autistic. The pattern of subscale scores for those with CHARGE differed from the other normative groups. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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The purpose of this article is to examine models designed for the determination of a learning disability and compare them to specific criteria to determine whether the given diagnostic process is ecological in nature. The traditional child-centered deficit model (CCD), Relative Achievement Discrepancy model (RAD), and Responsiveness to Intervention model (RTI) were evaluated against the following three questions: (a) Does the environmental context of the assessment adequately represent the real-life situation? (b) Are the assessment stimuli relevant to the daily classroom activity? (c) Are the student behavior and/or required response natural and representative of the construct being assessed? The results of this examination suggested that the RTI has the most potential for ecological validity, but currently falls short. Suggestions for future research are included.

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