Describes the development of "The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: A Strength-Based Approach to Assessment" for use with children with special needs. Reports on several pilot studies conducted to establish the scale's validity prior to the scale being normed on a nationally representative sample. These studies addressed content…

A study evaluated differences in ratings of behavior problems and competence from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) between samples of 78 gifted adolescents and 62 controls. Results found no reliable differences for any scales from the CBCL and a low prevalence of behavior problems in both samples. (Author/CR)

This article describes emotional availability scales that are designed to measure parental sensitivity, structuring, lack of intrusiveness and hostility, child responsiveness, and child involvement. A child nonhostility scale is also described. The importance and potential use of emotional availability for educators of children with hearing…

Investigates the short-term stability of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents for 124 randomly selected children in grades kindergarten to grade 12. Significant test-retest stability coefficients were obtained and mean differences across the retest interval did not exceed .8 raw score points. Results were similar to those obtained in…

Analysis of teacher and parent ratings of 369 children with developmental disabilities on the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form provided normative data (means, T scores, and percentiles). Age influenced three of eight subscales on the parent ratings and one subscale on the teacher ratings. Gender did not influence subscale scores. (Author/DB)

This study examined possible differences between teacher ratings of Anglo-American and Hispanic students based on the student's acculturation level in the context of using behavior rating scales to identify students for gifted education programs. Findings indicated significant differences between teacher ratings of Anglo-American and Hispanic…

A study tested the psychometric properties of the Stereotyped Behavior Scale, an empirically developed behavior rating scale for adolescents and adults with mental retardation. Forty-five adults with mental retardation and various rates of stereotypies participated. Results found the scale had high rates of reliability, validity, and interrater…

The limitations of informant assessment of problem behaviors was investigated across seven situations and three participants (ages 11-18) with cognitive impairments. Informant hypotheses about the function of problem behaviors were validated by subsequent functional analyses only when informants identified their hypotheses as involving situations…

This article describes a computer game that supports the development of learners' social problem-solving skills. In a controlled three-group design, the group using the prototype game performed significantly better than an attention-placebo control and comparably to a therapist-directed group on measures of problem solving and engagement. However,…

Independent examination and replication of the core syndrome factor structure of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA; McDermott, Marston, & Stott, 1993) is reported. A sample of 1,020 children were randomly selected from their classroom and rated on the ASCA by their teacher. The six ASCA core syndromes produced a…

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…

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 purpose of this study was to examine the convergence among observational data on children's temperament. Data were gathered through: (1) standard procedures designed to elicit discrete emotions; (2) parental reports; and (3) children's emotional tone observed during naturalistic mother-child contexts. A total of 112 normally developing 8- to…

The Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) were developed to standardize communication sampling procedures in assessing preverbal and early verbal stage children. To assess interrater reliability in using the scales with children with developmental disabilities, eight children (ages 33-113 months) with developmental disabilities were…

School psychologists engaged in ecological assessment need to measure the degree to which children's behaviors fit the demands of the school environment. Although no standardized instruments serve that purpose, rating scales and simulation/role plays can be adapted to measure the person-environment (PE) fit. Although most behavior rating scales…