Measuring Anxiety in Youth with Learning Disabilities: Reliability and Validity of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC)

Youth with learning disabilities (LD) are at an increased risk for anxiety disorders and valid measures of anxiety are necessary for assessing this population. We investigated the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC; March in Multidimensional anxiety scale for children. Multi-Health Systems, North Tonawanda, 1998) in 41 adolescents (ages 11– 17 years) with LD. Youth and parents completed the MASC and were administered the semi-structured Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule: Child and Parent Versions (ADIS: C/P; Silverman and Albano in The Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV-Child and Parent Versions. Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, 1996). Results found that child and parent reports of Social Anxiety on the MASC closely corresponded with ADIS-generated social phobia diagnoses, and parent total scores discriminated well among youth with and without any anxiety disorder. A multi-method multi-trait matrix provided evidence of the construct validity of the MASC total score for both parent and child reports. Our findings provide empirical evidence that parent and child versions of the MASC are useful for assessing anxiety in youth with LD

Generalized Use of Past Tense Verbs in Children with Autism Following a Sufficient Exemplar Training Procedure

The purpose of this study was to validate a procedure for sufficient exemplar training that can potentially lead to generalized responding. Based on this procedure, we taught four children with autism, generalized use of regular past tense verbs. We applied a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across the participants. The dependent variable was the number of verbs that needed to be trained for generalization to untrained verbs to occur. The number of verbs that needed to be trained varied considerably across participants as did the number of trials. We concluded that the procedure was validated and that it was easy to implement and it allows for individualization. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for teaching a wide range of skills using the same type of training procedure and data display strategies we provided in this study

Generalized use of past tense verbs in children with autism following a sufficient exemplar training procedure

The purpose of this study was to validate a procedure for sufficient exemplar training that can potentially lead to generalized responding. Based on this procedure, we taught four children with autism, generalized use of regular past tense verbs. We applied a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across the participants. The dependent variable was the number of verbs that needed to be trained for generalization to untrained verbs to occur. The number of verbs that needed to be trained varied considerably across participants as did the number of trials. We concluded that the procedure was validated and that it was easy to implement and it allows for individualization. We discuss the practical implications of our findings for teaching a wide range of skills using the same type of training procedure and data display strategies we provided in this study