Sleep problems are common in Rett syndrome and other neurogenetic syndromes. Actigraphy is a cost-effective, objective method for measuring sleep. Current guidelines require caregiver-reported bed and wake times to facilitate actigraphy data scoring. The current study examined missingness and consistency of caregiver-reported bed and wake times…

To identify the dominant cultural models among parents transmitting faith to their children, we find few methodological guidelines to guide coding and analysis of semi-structured interviews. We thus developed a three-phase procedure for our research team. Phase-one follows Campbell et al. by unitizing on meanings rather than words/pages, including…

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the experiences of parents of children with special needs in Turkey, specifically their encounters with Guidance and Research Centers (GRCs) during the process of obtaining educational assessment reports. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 parents, the study reveals complex emotions and…

Triangulation -- a combined use of different assessment methods or sources to evaluate psychological constructs -- is still a rarely used assessment approach in spite of its potential in overcoming inherent constraints of individual assessment methods. This paper uses field test data from a new OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills to examine…

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the desire to obtain new knowledge capable of either producing positive experiences of intellectual interest (I-type) or of reducing undesirable conditions of informational deprivation (D-type). Although researchers acknowledge that there are individual differences in young children's epistemic curiosity, there are…

For children age birth to five, physical, cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional growth and development occur at a rapid pace. While all children in this age range may not reach developmental milestones (e.g., smiling, saying first words, taking first steps) at the same time, development that does not happen within an expected timeframe can…

Psychometric and utility studies on Social Emotional Assessment Measure (SEAM), an innovative tool for assessing and monitoring social-emotional and behavioral development in infants and toddlers with disabilities, were conducted. The Infant and Toddler SEAM intervals were the study focus, using mixed methods, including item response theory…

We discuss the utility of a coding system designed to evaluate the amount and type of parent talk during individualized family service plan (IFSP) meetings. The iterative processes used to develop the "Parent Communication Coding System" (PCCS) and its associated codes are described. In addition, we explored whether PCCS codes could be…

This is the second study to investigate the clinical use of the Parent-Instruction Game with Youngsters (PIGGY) which is a structured observation system derived from the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System II (DPICS-II; Eyberg, Bessmer, Newcomb, Edwards, & Robinson, 1994) and the Behavior Coding System (BCS; Forehand & McMahon, 1981). In…

The atypical antipsychotic medication aripiprazole was evaluated using a randomized AB multiple baseline, double-blind, placebo-controlled design for the treatment of severe problem behavior with 4 children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Functional analysis (FA) was conducted concurrent with the medication evaluation to…

In this article, the authors clarify the role of the leadership team, providing a rationale for one integrated team to examine academic, social, and behavioral programming, with careful attention to including all key stakeholders. Next, the authors discuss the procedures for teaching all key stakeholders the comprehensive, integrated, three-tiered…

Objective: The present study determined interrater agreement on diagnoses achieved using the parent and child versions of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children for DSM-IV (ADIS-C/P) and examined informant, age, and gender influences on reliability. Method: Diagnoses established for 153 seven- to 16-year-old children during live…

According to two decades of research, parental sexual orientation does not affect overall child development. Researchers have not found significant differences between offspring of heterosexual parents and those of lesbian and gay parents in terms of their cognitive, psychological, or emotional adjustment. Still, there are gaps in the literature…

Objective: To complement standardized measurement of symptoms, we developed and tested an efficient strategy for identifying (before treatment) and repeatedly assessing (during treatment) the problems identified as most important by caregivers and youths in psychotherapy. Method: A total of 178 outpatient-referred youths, 7-13 years of age, and…

The psychometric integrity of a short form of the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress was evaluated, based on data provided by 66 mothers and 66 fathers of 33 handicapped and 33 nonhandicapped preschool children. Alpha reliability, factor structure, and construct validity analyses indicated that the measure has reasonable psychometric integrity.…