The Development of Social Competence in Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities experience unique challenges in developing social skills critical to achieve their social goals. Although there are individual differences, children with delays and disabilities may struggle to communicate with others, understand gestures, and take other people’s viewpoints. These differences may prevent children with disabilities from initiating and sustaining social interactions and, in turn, from developing high levels of social competence (Hebbeler & Spiker, 2016). To support social development of children with disabilities, it is important to promote positive relationships within the family system as well as the teaching of social skills in inclusive early learning environments (Mahoney et al., 2020). The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a framework for supporting social emotional learning (SEL) from preschool through high school and across home and school settings (Weissberg et al., 2013). CASEL focuses on five SEL core competencies that include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These social and emotional competencies provide a foundation for children to adjust to challenges, develop positive relationships with peers and adults, and engage in learning tasks in ways that can benefit children with disabilities (Durlak et al., 2011). In this chapter, we first introduce two theoretical frameworks that can guide research and practice relevant to social competence of children with disabilities. Second, we discuss personal and contextual factors that either facilitate or hinder social development of children with disabilities in everyday interactions. Third, we address cultural understandings of disability that influence children’s socialization within family and community contexts. Finally, we conclude with the implications of using social intervention approaches for children with disabilities in home, school, and community-based contexts

Setting Sail for Early Learning Success: Using a Data-based Decision Making Process to Measure and Monitor Outcomes in Early Childhood Programs

The use of data to inform decision-making and monitor individual student progress is recognized as an important, yet elusive practice in early childhood programs. In this article, Data-based Navigation is presented as a five step data-based decision making process designed to help early childhood professionals measure and monitor desired programmatic outcomes. A case study that focuses on the reduction of challenging behaviors is provided to illustrate the process

Polygenic Risk Modelling for Prediction of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Risk

Funder: Funding details are provided in the Supplementary MaterialAbstractPolygenic risk scores (PRS) for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) have the potential to improve risk stratification. Joint estimation of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) effects in models could improve predictive performance over standard approaches of PRS construction. Here, we implemented computationally-efficient, penalized, logistic regression models (lasso, elastic net, stepwise) to individual level genotype data and a Bayesian framework with continuous shrinkage, “select and shrink for summary statistics” (S4), to summary level data for epithelial non-mucinous ovarian cancer risk prediction. We developed the models in a dataset consisting of 23,564 non-mucinous EOC cases and 40,138 controls participating in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) and validated the best models in three populations of different ancestries: prospective data from 198,101 women of European ancestry; 7,669 women of East Asian ancestry; 1,072 women of African ancestry, and in 18,915 BRCA1 and 12,337 BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers of European ancestry. In the external validation data, the model with the strongest association for non-mucinous EOC risk derived from the OCAC model development data was the S4 model (27,240 SNPs) with odds ratios (OR) of 1.38(95%CI:1.28–1.48,AUC:0.588) per unit standard deviation, in women of European ancestry; 1.14(95%CI:1.08–1.19,AUC:0.538) in women of East Asian ancestry; 1.38(95%CI:1.21-1.58,AUC:0.593) in women of African ancestry; hazard ratios of 1.37(95%CI:1.30–1.44,AUC:0.592) in BRCA1 pathogenic variant carriers and 1.51(95%CI:1.36-1.67,AUC:0.624) in BRCA2 pathogenic variant carriers. Incorporation of the S4 PRS in risk prediction models for ovarian cancer may have clinical utility in ovarian cancer prevention programs.</jats:p

Assessment and Early Identification of Young Children with Social Emotional Difficulties and Behavioral Challenges

This paper discusses the issues and challenges to the assessment and early identification of social emotional and behavioral issues in young children birth through five years of age in the United States. The linked system framework of social emotional assessment and intervention [1] is outlined, and recommendations for authentic assessment of social emotional development are provided to assist professionals in identifying young children early for amelioration and prevention of behavioral challenges

Optimistic teaching: Improving the capacity for teachers to reduce young children\u27s challenging behavior.

This pilot study compared the differential impact of two professional development interventions to improve preschool teachers’ use of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) and decrease young children’s social emotional difficulties. Teachers were randomly assigned to one of two coaching interventions conducted over the course of one academic year. Teachers received either Optimistic Teaching, an approach combining traditional coaching in PBIS with a cognitive-behavioral component to address teachers’ self-efficacy, or traditional PBIS coaching. Teachers in the Optimistic Teaching condition implemented significantly more PBIS skills related to teaching children social skills and involving families in their children’s social emotional development when compared to teachers who were exposed to traditional PBIS coaching alone. Teachers in the Optimistic Teaching condition reported significantly fewer children with serious social emotional difficulties post-intervention. Teachers’ experience and self-reported self-efficacy were analyzed for their influence on teachers’ post-intervention use of PBIS skills. The results are discussed in light of how future professional development efforts might address preschool teachers’ motivation to adopt new practices such as PBIS

Special considerations in wound bed preparation 2011: an update©

This article builds and expands upon the concept of wound bed preparation introduced by Sibbald et al in 2000 as a holistic approach to wound diagnosis and treatment of the cause and patient-centered concerns such as pain management, optimizing the components of local wound care: Debridement, Infection and persistent Inflammation, along with Moisture balance before Edge effect for healable but stalled chronic wounds