The purpose of this study was to identify how parents' use of language and literacy strategies during an adapted shared book reading activity relate to social, behavioral, and cognitive skills for their children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants were 111 young children (ages 4-7 years) with ASD and their mothers. A factor analysis…

Helping others is often more complicated than fulfilling their requests, for instance, when an individual requests something that is not suited to achieving her or his ultimate goal. Are children indiscriminate helpers, responding to any object-directed action or request, or do their helping actions prioritize ultimate goals over specific…

Although parents frequently instruct children not to lie, children often observe lie-telling within the family environment. To date, no empirical research has examined children's spontaneous lie-telling to different lie-recipients. The current study examined children's spontaneous deceptive behaviour to parents and unfamiliar adults. In…

Parents and their children with severe expressive impairments may have limited successful communicative exchanges due to each partner's difficulty in recognizing and responding to communicative behaviors of the other. This study examined the communicative functions and modes of communication that received contingent responses in 20 dyads of…

Early learning experiences at home and in classrooms build the foundations for children's later success in school and life. The pandemic has upended home life and preschool programs, making it more challenging for both parents and communities to provide optimal learning experiences for young children. These changes are likely to have important…

The current study examined the utility and incremental validity of parent ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Disruptive Behavior Disorders rating scale completed at kindergarten registration in identifying risk status as defined by important criterion variables (teacher ratings, daily behavioral performance, and quarterly…

Given the increasing diversity of families within the United States, early educators have many opportunities to work with children and families from diverse backgrounds. It is likely that these encounters will include children who, at first glance, exhibit behavior that educators may consider worrisome and "challenging." However, many…

In all human cultures, people gesture iconically. However, the evolutionary basis of iconic gestures is unknown. In this study, chimpanzees and bonobos, and 2- and 3-year-old children, learned how to operate two apparatuses to get rewards. Then, at test, only a human adult had access to the apparatuses, and participants could instruct her about…

The adoption of "structured teaching" is evident in educational settings worldwide and has fast become one of the key "tools" in autism education. As calls for evidence-based practice have increased, research evidence has grown to interrogate the effectiveness of structured teaching components. Previous systematic literature…

Dual diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and behavior problems and/or mental disorders has become increasingly recognized and studied. Reported rates in samples of mixed-age youth with ASD are often above 70%, making this comorbidity more the rule than the exception. The present study compared rates of disruptive behavior disorder…

We report findings of a convergent validity study examining the internalizing subscale (SRSS-I6) of the Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE) with the internalizing subscale of the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991). Participants included 227 sixth- through 12th-grade students from nine schools across…

Deficits in self-regulatory skills underlie or contribute to a range of adverse developmental problems and disorders, including ADHD (Barkley, 1997), eating disorders (Attie & Brooks-Gunn, 1995) and risk -taking behaviour (Cantor & Sanderson 1998; Eisenberg et al., 2005). Self-regulation has been recognised as an important factor in aiding…

This study addresses the relationships between teachers and children (four to six years old) with difficulties in self-regulation from the parent's point of view. Narratives were constructed in 21 interviews with parents of children who have difficulties in self-regulation. The study focused on two questions: (i) What kinds of teacher-child…

The quality of early student-teacher relationships (STRs) has been shown to predict children's school adjustment, and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for poor quality STRs. The present study examined 162 children with ASD (ages 4-7) and their teachers to evaluate student, teacher, and classroom characteristics that…

Promoting child mental wellbeing is an important part of UK early intervention policy. Children with poor physical or mental health have significantly lower educational attainment and lower social status as adults. "Activity" projects are one form of early intervention used to try and help vulnerable children. Evidence relating to the…