"Making Assessment Work: Ten Practitioner Beliefs" was developed by the National Practitioner Advisory Group on Using Data to Inspire SEL Practice (NPAG), a group of social and emotional learning (SEL) practice leaders convened to provide insights on SEL. Educators, program leaders, and policymakers recognize the value of holistically…

Matching methods such as nearest neighbor propensity score matching are increasingly popular techniques for controlling confounding in nonexperimental studies. However, simple k:1 matching methods, which select k well-matched comparison individuals for each treated individual, are sometimes criticized for being overly restrictive and discarding…

The set of statistical methods available to developmentalists is continually being expanded, allowing for questions about change over time to be addressed in new, informative ways. Indeed, new developments in methods to model change over time create the possibility for new research questions to be posed. Latent transition analysis, a longitudinal…

Communities across the nation have become increasingly concerned about inhalant use and use of harmful legal products among youth because of increasing prevalence rates and deleterious health consequences from abusing these products. The increasing concern of communities about inhaling and ingesting legal products has been coupled with increasing…

Comparison of rapid automatized naming in 136 children and youth with primary language disorders and 2,450 typical children and youth found naming time (but not accuracy) differed significantly between groups, especially in the color-shape naming task. Findings indicate that the requirements for two-dimensional, continuous naming resulted in…

Community coalitions (CCs) have labored with some difficulty to demonstrate empirical evidence of effectiveness in preventing a wide range of adolescent problem behaviors. Training and technical assistance (TA) have been identified as important elements in promoting improved functioning of CCs. A reliable, valid, and inexpensive method to assess…

Functional analysis conducted during a 90-minute evaluation session identified maintaining variables for aggressive behavior and an alternative replacement response in 3 individuals with severe handicaps. During a subsequent contingency reversal phase, aggressive behavior was substantially reduced and alternative behavior increased. Results…

Four experiments involving 18 individuals (ages 14-55) with profound multiple handicaps found that 12 stimuli used in a preference assessment represented a comprehensive stimulus set for identifying preferences, though the utility of the set could sometimes be enhanced by caregiver opinion. Results also indicated that preferences identified were…

A total of 274 British youth and adults with handicaps were administered the National Independent Living Skills assessment. Cluster analysis suggested that handicapped persons could be classified into four groups from lowest functioning to highest functioning, using independent living skills variables relating to living, work, and educational…

A behavioral assessment procedure was evaluated with five children with severe/profound mental retardation who exhibited feeding problems of limited intake. Subjects were fed various types of foods. Results indicated each subject fit into one of four categories: (1) total food refusal, (2) food type selectivity, (3) food texture selectivity, or…

The "Handbook of Youth Prevention Science" describes current research and practice in mental health preventive interventions for youth. Traditional prevention research focused on preventing specific disorders, e.g. substance abuse, conduct disorders, or criminality. This produced "silos" of isolated knowledge about the…

Hearing-impaired students (n=324) in grades 9-11 were administered the Adolescent-Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences. The measure was found to be valid and reliable for measuring subjects' coping skills and for assessing students' suitability for various types of educational placements. (Author/JDD)

Time-based lag sequential analyses were conducted on 23 topographies of challenging behavior shown by 5 young people with severe mental retardation across 2 settings. Potential behavioral functions were identified for 21 of the 23 behaviors. Response classes were identified for four participants. Cross-validation with brief experimental analyses…

The validity of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (Third Edition) for identification and description of language disorders following brain injury was evaluated in 11 adolescents with traumatic brain injury. In general, the measure identified only those individuals who had previously been diagnosed as language impaired, not those…

The Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery identifies cognitive deficits and localizes specific brain impairment in individuals age 15 or older. The instrument uses visual stimulus cards and an audiotape to assess performance in such areas as tactile functions, speech, arithmetic, and memory. This paper examines test administration, summation…