Comparison of behavior problems reported by mothers and teachers of 44 children (ages 6 to 15) with Down syndrome and 44 controls without mental retardation indicated that the Down syndrome children had more behavior problems, in particular attention deficit, noncompliance, thought disorder, and social withdrawal. Life events were associated with…

This study assessed the interrater reliability of a Swedish version of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), an instrument for screening and diagnosis of autism. The CARS was used for rating autistic behavior by two investigators in 25 children. Results indicated fair to excellent agreement. Aspects of validity and reliability are discussed.…

The Teacher's Report Form (TRF) was investigated over 3 years for its practical ability to track outcomes in 89 elementary students with emotional disturbances. The students whose placement changed to less restrictive settings demonstrated significant improvement on consecutive TRF's in academic performance, classroom functioning, and aggressive…

Connections between current and historical autism-specific behavior reported using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised were investigated using 93 subjects showing autistic behaviors. The association was high, although there was a tendency for diagnostic exclusion of adolescents and adults, especially verbal, high-functioning individuals who…

The "Behavior Problems Inventory" (BPI) is a behavior rating instrument for self-injurious, stereotypic, and aggressive/destructive behavior in mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. Evaluation with 432 residents in a developmental center found the BPI to be a reliable (retest reliability, internal consistency, and…

A study investigated the long-term stability of the teacher and parent behavioral ratings of 37 children with specific language impairment. Results indicate diminishment in teacher-reported behavior problems in most areas of socioemotional development from kindergarten to second grade and increasing congruence between teacher and parent ratings.…

This paper describes the development of the Behaviour Function Inventory (BFI), an instrument designed to assess particular disorders of psychological development and functioning in children with developmental disorders including autism. A study of the reliability and validity of the scale indicated that the BFI provides precise information on the…

Two studies investigated the construct validity of the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS), a new behavior rating scale for assessing children's social behavior, and relationships between characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and children's social behavior. Results indicated a strong link between social behavior…

Data were gathered from videotaped recordings of two preschool children engaged in unstructured free play over 12 days each. Observers coded behavior from the videotapes and completed a behavior rating scale for each child after every two observation sessions. Teachers also completed two behavior rating scales per child. Results indicated that at…

This study describes and documents reliability reporting practices in dissertation studies that have used the "Behavior Assessment System for Children" (BASC). Only 9 of 106 studies examined reported reliability for subpopulations. The lack of reliability score estimates has implications for use of the BASC to identify culturally diverse…

The ability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A; J. N. Butcher et al., 1992) validity scales to detect random, partially random, and nonrandom MMPI-A protocols was investigated. Investigations included the Variable Response Inconsistency scale (VRIN), F, several potentially useful new F and VRIN subscales, and…

Background: Observation studies of students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) problems in natural classroom situations are costly and relatively rare. Aims: The study enquired how teacher ratings are anchored in actual student classroom behaviours, and how the behaviour of children with ADHD problems differs from their…

The importance of the beliefs and attitudes of teachers and building-level administrators in achieving school reform has come to be widely acknowledged. As University of Wisconsin professor Kent Peterson put it: "You can implement a good-quality improvement plan and knowledgeable, data-driven decision making, but if the [staff] doesn't…

This report describes the development of a rating scale and direct observation measure to monitor the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in the home or school setting. The study applied an accuracy-reliability paradigm to validate the newly created rating scale and observation measure. An incontrovertible index using a scripted…

This paper presents a scale to evaluate the social interactions between students with severe disabilities and nondisabled students in integrated settings. The Educational Assessment of Social Interaction (EASI) was developed to be used with relatively little training but still be sensitive to the following major dimensions of interactions: (1)…