Differences in maternal responsive and directive behavior during free play with and without aided AAC.

Maternal directive and responsive behaviors were compared for 25 mothers and children with complex communication needs using two types of toys (familiar and unfamiliar toys). Each type of toy play was conducted with and without a single message speech-generating communication device (SGD) programmed to say "more." Rate percentages of coded intervals for maternal directive and responsive behaviors were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVAs. Results indicated that mothers used significantly more responsive behaviors when playing with their own familiar toys than with unfamiliar toys, but no differences in directiveness between types of play. Mothers showed no differences in responsivity or directiveness when the SGD was added to play interactions, indicating that the SGD did not introduce task features that detracted from the mothers' existing levels of responsivity with their children. Clinical implications are discussed.

Mastery motivation in children with complex communication needs: longitudinal data analysis.

This study compared longitudinal changes in mastery motivation during parent-child free play for 37 children with complex communication needs. Mastery motivation manifests as a willingness to work hard at tasks that are challenging, which is an important quality to overcoming the challenges involved in successful expressive communication using AAC. Unprompted parent-child play episodes were identified in three assessment sessions over an 18-month period and coded for nine categories of mastery motivation in social and object play. All of the object-oriented mastery motivation categories and one social mastery motivation category showed an influence of motor skills after controlling for receptive language. Object play elicited significantly more of all of the object-focused mastery motivation categories than social play, and social play elicited more of one type of social-focused mastery motivation behavior than object play. Mastery motivation variables did not differ significantly over time for children. Potential physical and interpersonal influences on mastery motivation for parents and children with complex communication needs are discussed, including broadening the procedures and definitions of mastery motivation beyond object-oriented measurements for children with complex communication needs.

Psychometrics of the preschool behavioral and emotional rating scale with children from early childhood special education settings.

In a previous study with a nationally representative sample, researchers found that the items of the Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale can best be described by a four-factor structure model (Emotional Regulation, School Readiness, Social Confidence, and Family Involvement). The findings of this investigation replicate and extend these previous results with a national sample of children (N = 1,075) with disabilities enrolled in early childhood special education programs. Data were analyzed using classical tests theory, Rasch modeling, and confirmatory factor analysis. Results confirmed that for the most part, individual items were internally consistent within a four-factor model and showed consistent item difficulty, discrimination, and fit relative to their respective subscale scores.

Indirect facilitation of speech in a late talking child by prompted production of picture symbols or signs.

The present study investigated the effectiveness of prompted nonspoken language production using two low-tech AAC strategies (i.e., picture symbols and sign language) at indirectly facilitating speech productions in a young child with expressive language delays ("late talker"). A single subject, multiple baseline design was used. Results indicated that prompting either sign or picture-symbol production improved the child's speech output for target words without any direct prompts to speak, but that the two AAC strategies did not differ from one another in effectiveness at indirectly eliciting speech. The improvements associated with both strategies suggest that AAC can be a viable intervention tool to address improved speech in children with expressive delays. The AAC intervention had a clear and rapid effect on the child's spoken word productions, although the child did not produce signs or symbols to criterion for most of the target words before producing them in speech.

Differential item functioning across race and ethnicity for the Emotional and Behavioral Screener.

The objective of this study was to assess the measurement invariance of items from the Emotional and Behavioral Screener (EBS) across racial and ethnic groups and assess the impact of differential item functioning (DIF) on test scores from the EBS. Participants were 4,856 first-grade students (49% female) who were diverse with regard to race and ethnicity (45% African American, 41% Hispanic/Latino, and 14% Caucasian). Classroom teachers rated each student on the EBS during the fall semester screening window. Item response theory modeling was combined with ordinal regression to investigate the presence and impact of differential item functioning across 3 race and ethnicity groups. The findings suggest that items from the EBS exhibit small to negligible levels of DIF, and the limited DIF that was present does not significantly impact overall scores. Researchers and practitioners can have confidence that scores from the EBS are relatively unaffected by test bias when measuring the emotional and behavioral risk of young students from African American, Hispanic/Latino, or Caucasian backgrounds. (PsycINFO Database Record

Comparison of standardized assessments for cognitive and receptive communication skills in young children with complex communication needs.

This study compared estimates of receptive language development for children with complex communication needs to estimates of related skill domains. Subscores of the Battelle Developmental Inventory were compared with each other and the MacArthur Communication Developmental Inventory for 41 children with severe expressive impairments over a period of 18 months, beginning at ages 12-24 months. Across all ages studied, children with severe expressive impairments had better receptive language scores than expected for either their cognitive or overall developmental age equivalence scores. While receptive language measures were correlated with each other and age, scores for receptive language skills on the MacArthur were consistently more stringent than for the Battelle for this population. Implications for clinical application of these measures for children with expressive impairments are discussed.

Parental directiveness and responsivity toward young children with complex communication needs.

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to determine if parent responsiveness to their children with complex communication needs (CCN) during naturalistic play changed over an 18-month period and determine if any such changes were influenced by the child's overall level of receptive and expressive language development, motor development or differing play contexts. This longitudinal information is important for early intervention speech-language pathologists and parents of children with developmental disabilities for whom the use of parent-directed responsivity interventions may be encouraged. METHOD: Over an 18-month period, 37 parents of young children who had physical and/or neurological disabilities participated in three home-based parent-child play episodes. Videotapes of each play episode were extracted and coded. RESULT: Results indicated parents who were initially responsive showed a significant tendency to continue to be so. Early on, parents were significantly more likely to be directive during object play than social play and significantly more likely to interact responsively during social play than object play. CONCLUSION: Parents of children with developmental disabilities were not consistently less responsive to their children based on motor or language capabilities. Previous reports of higher parental directiveness with children who have developmental disabilities may be attributable to object-based play interactions.

Communication-based assessment of developmental age for young children with developmental disabilities.

PURPOSE: In this study, the authors compared a multiple-domain strategy for assessing developmental age of young children with developmental disabilities who were at risk for long-term reliance on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with a communication-based strategy composed of receptive language and communication indices that may be less affected by physically challenging tasks than traditional developmental age scores. METHOD: Participants were 42 children (age 9-27 months) with developmental disabilities and who were at risk for long-term reliance on AAC. Children were assessed longitudinally in their homes at 3 occasions over 18 months using multiple-domain and communication-based measures. Confirmatory factor analysis examined dimensionality across the measures, and age-equivalence scores under each strategy were compared, where possible. RESULTS: The communication-based latent factor of developmental age demonstrated good reliability and was almost perfectly correlated with the multiple-domain latent factor. However, the mean age-equivalence score of the communication-based assessment significantly exceeded that of the multiple-domain assessment by 5.3 months across ages. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians working with young children with developmental disabilities should consider a communication-based approach as an alternative developmental age assessment strategy for characterizing children's capabilities, identifying challenges, and developing interventions. A communication-based developmental age estimation is sufficiently reliable and may result in more valid inferences about developmental age for children whose developmental or cognitive age scores may otherwise be limited by their physical capabilities.