In order to improve discrimination accuracy between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and similar neurodevelopmental disorders, a data mining procedure, Classification and Regression Trees (CART), was used on a large multi-site sample of PDD Behavior Inventory (PDDBI) forms on children with and without ASD. Discrimination accuracy exceeded 80%,…

Background: Early identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is currently limited by the absence of reliable biological markers for the disorder, as well as the reliability of screening and assessment tools for children aged between 6 and 18 months. Ongoing research has demonstrated the importance of early social communication skills in…

Behavior rating scales aid in the identification of problem behaviors, as well as the development of interventions to reduce such behavior. Although scores on many behavior rating scales have been validated in the United States, there have been few such studies in other cultural contexts. In this study, the structural validity of scores on a…

Community engagement professionals and partners serve as, work with, study, and build the capacity of boundary spanners. To augment knowledge about these functions, the Weerts-Sandmann Boundary Spanning Conceptual Framework (2010) has been operationalized through a survey instrument to examine community engagement boundary-spanning behaviors by…

The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary analysis of reliability and validity of scores on the "Self-Efficacy Self-Report Scale", which was designed to assess general self-efficacy in students aged 10 to 17 years. Confirmatory factor analysis on cross-validated samples was conducted revealing a marginal fit of the data to the…

Many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are eligible for special education services because of problems with academic and/or social functioning. Thus, a considerable proportion of children with ADHD have individualized education plans (IEPs) that list operationalized goals and objectives for each student. Conceptually,…

High-quality formative assessment data are critical to the successful application of any problem-solving model (e.g., response to intervention). Formative data available for a wide variety of outcomes (academic, behavior) and targets (individual, class, school) facilitate effective decisions about needed intervention supports and responsiveness to…

This document describes the process by which aspects of nonverbal communication that appear to be indicators of involvement were identified, described, classified, and rated. To facilitate this process, an Action Category System was developed through observation in the natural classroom setting and subsequent analyses of the recorded behavior…

Interaction data from 96 married couples in which the husband was an alcoholic, depressive, or normal control were coded with Marital Interaction Coding System and subjected to multidimensional scaling, principle components analysis, and transitional probability analyses. Resulting solutions indicated several clusters common across methods and…

Factors associated with the speed and level of difficulty with which individuals adjust to separation and divorce were investigated. A scale was developed to analyze these factors, and included items dealing with the subdimensions of stress and the perception of the persons involved. Factor analysis of the scale items as well as additional tests…

The Teacher Behavior Questionnaire was designed to measure the nature of the organization structure of schools in terms of the behavior of teachers as observed by fellow teachers on a school staff. The development of the Questionnaire consisted of modifying the School Organizational Inventory (Punch) in several ways: each item was changed to…

Providers' demographic characteristics, training, support networks, business practices, and stability of services were examined relative to their caregiving practices. Results from a schematic model approach suggest correlations between some of these factors and variances in ratings of caregiver practices. (LB)

The Naturalistic Evaluation Methodology presented here rests on a transactionist theory of child development, an ecological view of human behavior and the quasi-clinical method of inquiry. It is intended that the procedures will lead not only to the improvement of the quality of preschool education but will generate knowledge about children's…

Four-year old children in the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK) were administered three cognitive and two behavioral measures to determine if the data would provide sets of a smaller number of variables, to see if the variables overlapped, and to determine the appropriateness or redunduncy of the tests. The tests were: the…