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The aim of this study was to examine the internal consistency, inter-respondent reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the Psychoeducational Profile-third edition Caregiver Report (PEP3-CR) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We examined the internal consistency on 66 mothers of children with ASD who completed the PEP3-CR. Inter-respondent reliability was examined on 46 pairs of mothers and fathers who completed the PEP3-CR independently within one week. Moreover, 64 children were administered the Psychoeducational Profile-third edition Performance Test (PEP3-PT) and 20 children and their parents were administered the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) to examine the convergent and divergent validity of the PEP3-CR. The Cronbach's alpha of the PEP3-CR subtests, ranging from 0.83 to 0.85, indicated sufficient internal consistency. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of the two parents, ranging from 0.66 to 0.79, indicated moderate inter-respondent reliability. The correlations between the PEP3-PT, CARS, VABS and the PEP3-CR supported the convergent and divergent validity of the PEP3-CR. Therefore, the PEP3-CR is a reliable and valid caregiver report for assessing adaptive functioning and autistic behaviors in children with ASD. (Contains 3 tables.)

The aim of this study was to examine the responsiveness of the Psychoeducational Profile-third edition (PEP-3) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We investigated the responsiveness in terms of three types of scores (i.e., raw scores, developmental ages, and percentile ranks) of the subtests and composites of the PEP-3 and three methods of analysis were used: effect size, standardized response mean, and paired t test. The findings generally support the use of the PEP-3 as an outcome measure. We suggest using the raw scores and developmental ages of the PEP-3 when evaluating program effectiveness and developmental changes for children with ASD. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study aimed to investigate the sensory processing (SP) dysfunction and emotional and behavioral problems in preschool children with autism and then examine the relationship between the SP dysfunction and emotional and behavioral problems. The parents of 112 children aged 48-84 months (67 with autism; 45 age-matched typically developing) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Child Behavior Checklist-Chinese version (CBCL-C), and the Sensory Profile-Chinese version (SP-C). We found that 95.8% of children with autism who showed significant internalizing problems had at least one SP quadrant in the definite difference range, while 81.8% with significant externalizing problems had at least one SP quadrant in the definite difference range. Typically developing children showed lower percentages of 66.7% and 40.0%. Stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that in children with autism, avoiding and male gender were significant predictors of internalizing problems and sensitivity was a significant predictor of externalizing problems. In contrast, in typically developing children, avoiding was a significant predictor of internalizing problems and seeking was a significant predictor of externalizing problems. This study provided further understanding of the factors influencing emotional and behavioral problems in autism. (Contains 3 figures and 3 tables.)

The aim of this study was to adapt and evaluate the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) for use in Chinese-speaking countries. A total of 1082 parents completed the DCDQ and 35 parents repeated it after 2 weeks for test-retest reliability. Two items were deleted after examination of test consistency. Cronbach's [alpha] for the total score was 0.89 and test-retest reliability was 0.94. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed this version to be compatible with the original and two adaptations of the DCDQ. One-way ANOVA and the post hoc tests revealed that the non-DCD group scored significantly higher than the DCD group and the suspect DCD group, but the latter two did not differ significantly. Sensitivity and specificity of the DCDQ were 73% and 54%. The estimated area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.68. Compared to the dichotomized grouping in assessing sensitivity and specificity, which provides clinicians with all or none information about a child's probability of being DCD, the informative conditional effect plot could alert clinicians to the child with less conspicuous movement problems. This adaptation of the DCDQ could be used for identifying motor coordination problems in Chinese-speaking societies. (Contains 4 figures and 4 tables.)