Building Future Capacity of School Psychologists to Address the Demand for Inclusive Evidence-Based Consultation: Moving Beyond K-12 to Include School Readiness Frameworks

There is high demand for future school psychologists to address the need for continuous evidence-based consultation that moves beyond K-12 settings, and includes evidence-based consultation to promote school readiness for infants and toddlers with and at risk for developmental disabilities. While there exists a demand for school psychologists in infant and toddler settings, the primary focus of training programs is preparing graduates to work in school-based settings. Currently, a gap exists in graduate training opportunities in evidence-based consultation practices that support school readiness for infants and toddlers with and at risk for disabilities served through Part C services. While school psychologists typically are trained on evidence-based consultation mechanisms that have largely been utilized in K-12 contexts, they rarely receive consultation training with families of infants and toddlers. Therefore, expansion of training is necessary to support infants and toddlers through evidence-based consultation models. To underscore the importance of continuity in application of evidence-based consultation models, the current manuscript compares an evidence-based consultation model validated in K-12 settings and a consultation model for promoting infant and toddler developmental competencies. An illustration of the application of evidence-based consultation frameworks within multi-tiered systems of support and recommendations for graduate training, to better prepare school psychologists for work in birth-to-three settings, is provided

Pre-intervention child maltreatment risks, intervention engagement, and effects on child maltreatment risk within an RCT of MHealth and parenting intervention

IntroductionEvidence-based mental health and parenting support services for mothers postpartum can reduce risk for child maltreatment. However, women suffering economic and cultural stressors disproportionately shoulder the burden of infant caregiving while experiencing profound barriers to accessing mental health and parenting services. This article reports on an MHealth and parenting intervention targeting maternal mood and positive parent practices within a randomized controlled trial, which provided a unique opportunity to view pre-intervention child maltreatment risk, its relationship to subsequent intervention engagement, and intervention engagement effects on pre-post child maltreatment risk reduction.MethodPrincipal component factor analysis was conducted to identify a modifiable pre-intervention child maltreatment risk construct within a combined MHealth and parenting intervention sample of 184 primarily Black mothers and their infants. An independent t-test was conducted to compare pre-intervention child maltreatment risk levels between mothers who went on to complete at least two-thirds of the intervention and those who did not. A GLM repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted to determine effects of intervention engagement on child maltreatment risk reduction.ResultsPre-intervention child maltreatment risk did not differentiate subsequent maternal intervention completion patterns. Mothers who completed two-thirds of the intervention, compared to those who did not, demonstrated significant reductions in pre-post child maltreatment risk.DiscussionFindings underscore the potential of MHealth parenting interventions to reduce substantial child maltreatment risk through service delivery addressing a range of positive parenting and behavioral health needs postpartum, a particularly vulnerable developmental period for maternal depression and child maltreatment risk

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Mediating Parent Learning to Promote Social Communication for Toddlers with Autism: Effects from a Randomized Controlled Trial

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate effects of the Joint Attention Mediated Learning (JAML) intervention. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 16 to 30 months (n=144) were randomized to intervention and community control conditions. Parents, who participated in 32 weekly home-based sessions, followed a mediated learning process to target preverbal social communication outcomes (social visual synchrony, reciprocity, and responding and initiating forms of joint attention) throughout daily interactions. The analysis found post-intervention effects for all outcomes, with all except initiating joint attention sustaining six months post-intervention. Findings support the value of very early intervention targeting explicitly social functions of preverbal communication and of promoting active engagement in the learning process for both toddlers and parents

Providing Evidence-Based Interventions in Early Childhood Settings: Examination of Consultation Frameworks and Implementation of a Remote Intervention for Infant Siblings of Children with Autism

The Professional Standards of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP, 2020) indicate school psychologists should provide services to children and their families in early childhood settings. However, these services have historically been limited to assessment for eligibility of special education services (Albritton et al., 2019). School psychologists are uniquely positioned to expand their role within early childhood settings to services such as consultation and interventions within the context of a multi-tiered system of support. Chapter One of this dissertation outlines how school psychologists may implement inclusive evidence-based consultation frameworks to promote school readiness for infants and toddlers with and at-risk for developmental disabilities. To illustrate how school psychologists can engage in indirect service delivery in early childhood settings, conceptual overlaps between an evidence-based K-12 consultation framework and a consultation model for infants and toddlers will be detailed within the contexts of multi-tiered systems of support. Chapter Two also focuses on the provision of services to children in their earliest years of development through the implementation of the Mom and Baby Net (MBN) Program. This study utilized a single-case multiple-baseline design to examine the effects of the MBN Program on parent practices and child expressive language and engagement behaviors for infants who have a sibling diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Infant siblings of children with autism are at increased risk for social communication challenges (Goldberg et al., 2006; Mitchell et al., 2006), and parents who have children with autism often are at heightened risk for experiencing a range of negative symptoms (Ludlow et al., 2014; Nik Adib, 2019). Therefore, the implemented intervention addressed both child and parent challenges. Three infant-parent dyads were recruited for this study. Visual and statistical analysis of data collected with Indicator of Parent Child Interaction (IPCI; Baggett et al., 2010) and the Early Communication Indicator (ECI; Greenwood et al., 2005) was conducted. Results indicate that all three mothers showed substantial growth in their positive parenting practices and infants showed increases in their social engagement behaviors. Findings from this study provide support for the MBN program\u27s efficacy in addressing challenges experienced by both infant siblings and mothers

Minding the Gatekeepers: Referral and Recruitment of Postpartum Mothers with Depression into a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mobile Internet Parenting Intervention to Improve Mood and Optimize Infant Social Communication Outcomes

Mothers in the United States (U.S.) who are of non-dominant culture and socioeconomically disadvantaged experience depression during postpartum at a rate 3 to 4 times higher than mothers in the general population, but these mothers are least likely to receive services for improving mood. Little research has focused on recruiting these mothers into clinical intervention trials. The purpose of this article is to report on a study that provided a unique context within which to view the differential success of three referral approaches (i.e., community agency staff referral, research staff referral, and maternal self-referral). It also enabled a preliminary examination of whether the different strategies yielded samples that differed with regard to risk factors for adverse maternal and child outcomes. The examination took place within a clinical trial of a mobile intervention for improving maternal mood and increasing parent practices that promote infant social communication development. The sample was recruited within the urban core of a large southern city in the U.S. and was comprised primarily of mothers of non-dominant culture, who were experiencing severe socioeconomic disadvantage. Results showed that mothers self-referred at more than 3.5 times the rate that they were referred by either community agency staff or research staff. Moreover, compared to women referred by research staff, women who self-referred and those who were referred by community gatekeepers were as likely to eventually consent to study participation and initiate the intervention. Results are discussed with regard to implications for optimizing referral into clinical intervention trials

Age of diagnosis in Rett syndrome: patterns of recognition among diagnosticians and risk factors for late diagnosis.

Diagnosis of Rett syndrome (RTT) is often delayed. We sought to determine the type of physician who typically makes the RTT diagnosis and to identify risk factors for delayed diagnosis.A total of 1085 participants from the multicenter longitudinal RTT natural history study with classic and atypical RTT were recruited between 2006 and 2014. Age of diagnosis, diagnostician, diagnostic criteria, and clinical and developmental data were collected.Among 919 classic and 166 atypical RTT participants, the median diagnosis age was 2.7 years (interquartile range 2.0-4.1) in classic and 3.8 years (interquartile range 2.3-6.9) in atypical RTT. Pediatricians made the diagnosis of classic RTT rarely (5.2%); however, the proportion diagnosed by pediatricians has increased since 2006. Since the first diagnostic criteria, the age of diagnosis decreased among subspecialists but not pediatricians. Odds of a pediatrician making the diagnosis of classic RTT were higher if a child stopped responding to parental interaction, and lower if they possessed gastroesophageal reflux, specific stereotypies, lost babbling, or the ability to follow commands. Delayed acquisition of basic gross motor skills or finger feeding was associated with younger diagnosis; delayed acquisition of higher level fine motor skills, later onset of supportive features, and normal head circumference were associated with late diagnosis. Thirty-three percent with microcephaly before 2.5 years were diagnosed after the median age of 2.7 years.Age of RTT diagnosis has improved among subspecialists, and pediatricians have made the diagnosis of classic RTT more frequently since 2006. Strategies for educating diagnosticians should incorporate specific risk factors for delayed diagnosis