This study evaluates an intervention targeting social-communication and play skills (Advancing Social-communication and Play; ASAP) implemented by school staff in a public preschool setting. With increases in enrollment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in school systems, establishing the effectiveness and feasibility of…

Physical activity (PA) promotion for youth has long been thought of as a public health issue. However, with increases in diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle and the known benefits of PA, increasing the PA levels of children and adolescents has become a major public health concern. To this end, numerous organizations are calling on…

Recent theoretical approaches to infant development have highlighted the importance of exploratory actions to motor, perceptual and cognitive development in infancy. However, the performance of infants exposed to risk factors when exploring objects has been frequently overlooked as a variable of interest. The aim of this study was to review…

There is a paucity of research considering the effect of behavioral family intervention (BFI) on parenting knowledge and the relative importance of both knowledge and parent confidence in reducing parenting dysfunction and problematic child behavior is unclear. In this study ninety-one parents (44 mothers, 47 fathers) of children aged 2-10 years…

The development of response inhibition was investigated using a computerized go/no-go task, in a lagged sequential design where 376 preschool children were assessed repeatedly between 3.0 and 5.25 years of age. Growth curve modeling was used to examine change in performance and predictors of individual differences. The most pronounced change was…

Adolescent versions of the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and Systemizing Quotient (SQ) were developed and administered to n = 1,030 parents of typically developing adolescents, aged 12-16 years. Both measures showed good test-retest reliability and high internal consistency. Girls scored significantly higher on the EQ, and boys scored significantly higher…

We report a study that addressed behavior data recording by direct-care staff at a child services program. In response to a decreasing percentage of daily data recording in two community-based group homes, a supervisory intervention was implemented, consisting of a revised data recording form and providing performance feedback to the direct-care…

Research findings describing the emotional and behavioral functioning of typically developing (TD) siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are contradictory. Methodological issues, such as small study sample sizes and reliance on parent report, may contribute to inconsistent findings. The purpose of this study was to use parent…

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants' abilities to encode and retain information over a 6-month period. Sixty-six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional- relation and enabling-relation action…

To examine possible links between neurotoxicant exposure and neuropsychological disorders and child behavior, relative concentrations of lead, mercury, and manganese were examined in prenatal and postnatal enamel regions of deciduous teeth from children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), high levels of disruptive behavior (HDB), and typically…

The Screening for Understanding: Initial Line of Inquiry was designed to be used in conjunction with the child study team planning process for dealing with continuous problem behaviors prior to conducting a formal functional behavioral assessment. To conduct the initial line of inquiry a one-page reproducible screening matrix was used during child…

Psychosocial adjustment in siblings of children with autism whose families were using a home-based, applied behavior analysis (ABA) program was compared to that of siblings in families who were not using any intensive autism intervention. Data gathered from parents, siblings and teachers indicated that siblings in ABA families experienced neither…

This study evaluates an intervention targeting social-communication and play skills (Advancing Social-communication And Play; ASAP) implemented by school staff in a public preschool setting. With increases in enrollment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in school systems, establishing the effectiveness and feasibility of…

This study examines the evolutionary function of children's pretence. The everyday, cultural environment that children engage with is of a highly complex structure. Human adaptation, thus, becomes, by analogy, an equally complex process that requires the development of life skills. Whilst in role play children engage in "mimesis" and…

Objective: There is increasing emphasis on dimensional conceptualizations of psychopathology, but empirical evidence of their utility is just emerging. In particular, although a range of multidimensional models have been proposed, the relative fit of competing models has rarely been tested. Furthermore, developmental considerations have received…