The paper describes the "Early Social Communication Scales" designed to assess social and communication skills typically acquired in the first 30 months of life. Stressed is the role of the tester as an interactive partner for the infant. Reliability data suggesting reliability over time with the same partner are presented. (Author/DB)

Although several state mental retardation/developmental disabilities agencies use the Minnesota Developmental Programming System Behavioral Scales for statewide planning, evidence exists that this assessment provides more information than is necessary for efficient management decision making. Factor analysis resulted in identifying two factor…

Parent and teacher ratings of 141 middle-school children were collected using the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. Pearson correlation coefficients indicated a low degree of relationship between parent and teacher ratings. The lack of agreement in identifying children as either mildly deviant or highly deviant suggests rating subjectivity.…

Discusses the Massachusetts Adolescent Level of Functioning Scale designed for measuring the behavior of emotionally disturbed adolescents. Uses of the scale include specifying a standard intervention for any given problem indicator and measuring the outcome. The scale has broad applications for determining cost-effectiveness of programs and for…

Examines the tendency of observers to make less reliable recordings of behavorial events when a calibrating observer is absent. Using four different multicategory systems, 26 experienced observers coded 200 hours of videotaped family interactions. Concludes that observers lapse into a less attentive "set" prior to coding without a…

To test the hypothesis that acculturation influences the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) performance of Native Americans, an instrument was developed to measure five components of acculturation. When both the acculturation instrument and the MMPI-168 were administered to 69 Rosebud Sioux, results confirmed the hypothesis. Thus,…

A total of 192 high-risk infants and 85 full-term healthy newborn infants were administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. A principal component analysis was performed separately for the high-risk and control infants. Results suggest that the high-risk infant is similar to the normal infant in behavioral development, especially when…

Though rating scales represent a cost-effective way of obtaining data on child behavior, there are numerous unresolved issues pertaining to their use. This article focuses upon a few considerations regarding the instruments themselves and the informants who provide the ratings. Recommendation for future work on scale development are made.…

In a study to determine whether learning disabilities can be predicted from kindergarten teachers' anecdotal reports, 37 boys later diagnosed as learning disabled, were selected and their kindergarten class identified. (Author/MC)

Discussed are procedures for the charting of behavior changes to provide feedback for child and teacher which are reported to have been used at one school for autistic and neurologically impaired children. (DB)

The validity of the scales, based on an interaction model that rates the client response and the counselor behavior, was assessed by using interviews from two counselors, one trained to offer reinforcing counseling and the other trained to offer persuasive counseling. The mean rating for the two counselors on each scale was statistically…

Offered to aid the regular teacher in the identification of symptomatic behaviors of learning disabled or otherwise handicapped children is a behavior guide organized into six behavioral categories: visual behavior, motor behavior, graphics, physical health, multisensory skills, and socio-emotional behavior. (DB)

An attempt to determine the predictive and correlational validity of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument was made by comparing attitudes identified through the PARI with other independent measures of behavior and attitudes of the same sample. (Author)

The data indicates that the degree of agreement in judging behaviour varies according to the action under consideration and, additionally, for some behaviours, between sexes. (Editor)

Study investigates changing the behavioral self-confidence of low self-confident elementary school students within a classroom setting. (Editor)