When conducting classroom observations, researchers are often confronted with the decision of whether to conduct observations live or by using pre-recorded video. The present study focuses on comparing and contrasting observations of live and video administrations of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System-PreK (CLASS-PreK). Associations between…

Oral language skills are important to consider in school psychology practice, as they are directly tied to many areas of academic functioning. For example, research has demonstrated that oral language skills in early elementary school predict reading comprehension in later grades (Kendeou, van den Broek, White, & Lynch, 2009). With a…

Research Findings: A social validity measure was used to examine 56 bilingual preschool teachers' perceptions and acceptability of an interactive shared book reading vocabulary intervention implemented in English with Spanish-speaking preschool children (N = 334) in a dual language program model. Social validity outcomes indicated that bilingual…

The present study examines an ecological model for intervention use to explain student vocabulary performance in a multi-tiered intervention setting. A teacher self-report measure composed of factors hypothesized to influence intervention use at multiple levels (i.e., individual, intervention, and system level) was administered to 54 teachers and…

This study examined the relative contributions of Latino/a children's (N = 102) school readiness and early literacy skills during kindergarten in predicting first grade reading achievement. By using discriminant function analyses, the current study identified a set of areas to assess that could be used to effectively screen children during…

This study presents an independent replication and extension of psychometric evidence supporting the "Theory of Mind Inventory" ("ToMI"). Parents of 20 children with ASD (4; 1-6; 7 years; months) and 20 with typical development (3; 1-6; 5), rated their child's theory of mind abilities in everyday situations. Other parent report…

Preschoolers, as a group, are highly attuned to causality, and this attunement is known to facilitate memory, learning, and problem solving. However, recent work reveals substantial individual variability in the strength of children's "causal stance," as demonstrated by their curiosity about and preference for new causal information. In…

This study involved examination of the validity evidence of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-Next Edition (DIBELS Next) for a sample of 85 third-and fifth-grade students, in reference to the "simple view" of reading. Tests administered included DIBELS Next, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-IV (PPVT-IV), Group Reading…

Purpose: Standardized tests are one of the primary assessment tools used by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to diagnose child language impairment. Numerous child language tests are commercially available; however, it is unknown what factors lead clinicians to select particular tests to use in clinical practice. This study investigated whether…

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of first-grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores for predicting third-grade reading comprehension scores. We used the "simple view" of reading as the theoretical foundation for examining the extent to which DIBELS subtest scores predict…

Assessment is at the center of a decision-making model within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. Assessments that can be used for universal screening and progress monitoring in early childhood RTI models are needed that are both psychometrically sound and appropriate to meet developmental needs of young children. The Preschool Early…

The FAIR-FS consists of computer-adaptive reading comprehension and oral language screening tasks that provide measures to track growth over time, as well as a Probability of Literacy Success (PLS) linked to grade-level performance (i.e., the 40th percentile) on the reading comprehension subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-10) in the…

The Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS) was designed as a behavioral rating tool to assist teachers in identifying students at risk of working memory difficulties. The instrument was originally normed on 417 monolingual English-speaking children from the United Kingdom. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the WMRS…

The current study is a preliminary investigation of the psychometric properties of a brief seven-item Parent Involvement Survey (PIS) as developed by the researcher, that could potentially be used in schools. In an effort to test for construct validity, the relation of the PIS to elementary-aged students' receptive vocabulary skills and four…

The preschool years are a critical time to identify and treat early emotional or behavioral problems. Universal screening can be used to identify emotional and behavioral risk in preschoolers and fits well within current service delivery frameworks. This criterion-related validity study examined the use of a brief teacher-rated screener, the…