How, and when, do we conclude that a student has a disability, a disorder, giftedness or twice-exceptionality? This book traces the stages of diagnosis and identification systematically, from referral and the gathering of evidence to its interpretation and the decisions built on it. It presents internationally established instruments as they look and as they are actually administered, and reads them in light of Saudi regulations and Arabic-language tools.
Many who work with children find themselves facing much the same questions. A child does not turn when his name is called: does he have autism spectrum disorder? A girl reads very slowly despite her apparent intelligence: does she have a learning disability? A boy is years ahead of his peers in mathematics yet struggles with writing: is he gifted, does he have a problem, or are both true at once? And a report crowded with numbers: what do they actually mean?
In this book we set out to answer these questions systematically. We do not stop at defining categories and listing their criteria; we take up the details that are so often overlooked: what an instrument really looks like, how a testing session is conducted, who is qualified to administer it, how its results are read, and when the evidence is sufficient to reach a judgment and when it falls short. We have also chosen to bring together in a single volume what the literature usually keeps apart: disabilities and disorders on the one hand, and giftedness and twice-exceptionality on the other, since the same student may need to be viewed from both sides at once.
This is why the title pairs “diagnosis” with “identification.” In gifted education, identification is an educational process whose purpose is to determine who needs gifted services; it is not a diagnosis, because giftedness is not a disorder. It begins with the program's definition, draws on multiple criteria and local norms, and ends in a decision to provide services. In the field of disabilities, identification is tied to determining eligibility for services, and it runs alongside a clinical diagnosis grounded in DSM or ICD criteria.
We read the international standards (DSM-5-TR and ICD-11) and the detailed American experience (IDEA) in light of published Saudi regulations. Each category chapter therefore includes a table comparing the three frameworks, and where we found no published provision we say so rather than assume one. Every instrument profile describes the status of the instrument's Arabic version, and each category chapter closes with a summary of the Arabic tools and studies that have been published.
A diagnostic judgment does not rest on a single instrument but on the convergence of evidence from multiple sources: observation, interviews, standardized measures, developmental history and formal diagnostic criteria. Every score is a range, not a point; ruling out comes before ruling in; and every judgment is provisional and open to revision. These principles recur throughout the book, and the cases test them from different angles, including cases in which the student is not diagnosed.
We have taken care to make each chapter self-contained: its cases and examples are complete within it, and the core concepts it relies on are briefly explained, with a parenthetical cross-reference to the chapter that treats them in depth for readers who want more. Readers can therefore begin with whichever chapter concerns them. Reading in sequence, however, builds a deeper understanding: Part One lays down a shared language, Part Two presents the tools for gathering evidence, Part Three applies them to the categories, and Part Four addresses the fairness of judgment and what follows from it.
All chapters share a common structure, and the category chapters (7–13) add elements of their own:
In this book we describe instruments and explain how they are administered and interpreted, but we do not reproduce their items or copy their record forms, out of respect for publishers' rights and for the validity of the instruments themselves. Illustrations of forms are schematic and show no more than the layout of the page. Each profile reports the status of the instrument's Arabic version as we found it while preparing the book, and readers are advised to verify the licensing and norms of any version before relying on it. The blank forms in Chapter 4 are our own. All cases are hypothetical, written for teaching purposes, and any resemblance to real persons is unintended.
The Saudi regulatory texts cited in this book (the Regulations for Special Education Institutes and Programs, 1422 AH; the Special Education Organizational Guide, 1436–1437 AH; the Law on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 1445 AH; and others) are presented as we found them published while preparing the book. Because regulations are subject to revision, the authoritative reference is always the version currently in force.
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First edition, 1448 AH / 2026 · Legal deposit no. 1448/7008 · ISBN 978-603-06-7714-6. Published under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0): it may be copied, distributed and shared for non-commercial educational and research purposes, with attribution to the author and without changes to the text.