The Hearts and Flowers (H&F) task is a computerized executive functioning (EF) assessment that has been used to measure EF from early childhood to adulthood. It provides data on accuracy and reaction time (RT) across three different task blocks (hearts, flowers, and mixed). However, there is a lack of consensus in the field on how to score the…

Motivation impacts student academic performance. A performance task to directly assess writing motivation in young children is needed. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the validity of the Writing Challenge Task (WCT), a task-oriented assessment created to measure writing motivation with 106 kindergarten students in the rural…

This study aimed to extend previous literature comparing continuous methods of data collection to estimation data, but this time implementing the data collection procedures within a group discrete trial teaching format with three individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Group discrete trial teaching was conducted in a classroom setting…

Purpose: Analysis of narrative language samples is a recommended clinical practice in the assessment of children's language skills, but we know little about how results from such analyses relate to overall oral language ability across the early school years. We examined the relations between language sample metrics from a short narrative retell,…

A strong foundation in early literacy supports children's academic pursuits and impacts personal, social, and economic outcomes. Therefore, examining the adequacy of early literacy assessments as predictors of future performance on important outcomes is critical for identifying students at risk of reading problems. This study explored the…

Responsive school mental health services require proactive family engagement at the outset of prevention and early intervention, particularly across key transition periods such as kindergarten. Universal screening for mental health is one important process within a school mental health framework to proactively engage families in a collaborative…

Measuring the quality of classroom-based interactive shared book reading within the early childhood classroom represents a specific dimension of teacher-child interactions that is of great interest to researchers. This interest reflects decades of research demonstrating the benefit of reading to young children in both the home and the classroom.…