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Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face higher levels of caregiver strain compared to parents of children with other disabilities. This study examined child clinical features that predict high levels of caregiver strain for 374 parents of children with ASD. Caregiver strain was measured using the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ) objective, subjective internalized, and subjective externalized subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable fit for the original CGSQ three-factor solution. The strongest child predictors across CGSQ subscales were: disruptive behavior for objective strain, autism severity and disruptive behavior for subjective internalized strain, and oppositional behavior and hyperactivity for subjective externalized strain. Individualized interventions that attend to specific elements of parental strain may reduce strain and improve family wellbeing.

The UCI Libraries wanted to highlight the collections’ diverse materials but faced the following problems: how do we define diversity and how do we determine whether a specific title should be highlighted to patrons? Also, once we identify materials, how do we make them discoverable? Our solution: we tried two processes using the built-in functions in Ex Libris’ Primo VE and Alma systems. The first process used Primo VE’s user-generated tagging feature and involved the following workflow: identify lists of award-winning titles and add tags to the records in Primo VE. The second process used Primo VE’s Collection Discovery feature to highlight each of the book lists. This second workflow added the award information to the catalog record which allowed us to create a set in Alma and then create a collection that displays in Primo VE. Presentation to ALA Core Catalog Form and Function Interest Group by Cynthia Johnson, Kelsey Brown, Josh Hutchinson, Alyssa Hernandez. Feb 5, 2021

Parents of 30 school-age children with Down syndrome participated in a small-scale randomized clinical trial of a behavioral sleep treatment designed specifically for children with Down syndrome. The aim was to improve child sleep, child daytime behavior problems, caregiver sleep, and caregiver stress. The intervention spanned 5-8 weeks, and assessments occurred pre-treatment, immediately post-treatment, and three months post-treatment using a double-blinded design. Both the active treatment and a treatment-as-usual attention-controlled comparison group showed improvements in actigraphy and parent-report measures of child sleep, parent-reported child internalizing behaviors, and actigraphy measures of parent-sleep. The behavioral sleep treatment did not yield significantly different outcomes than a treatment-as-usual approach supplemented with non-sleep-specific behavioral or education sessions. Possible interpretations of study findings are discussed.

Ill and injured children have unique needs that can be magnified when the child's ailment is serious or life-threatening. This is especially true in the out-of-hospital environment. Providing high-quality out-of-hospital care to children requires an emergency medical services (EMS) system infrastructure designed to support the care of pediatric patients. As in the emergency department setting, it is important that all EMS agencies have the appropriate resources, including physician oversight, trained and competent staff, education, policies, medications, equipment, and supplies, to provide effective emergency care for children. Resource availability across EMS agencies is variable, making it essential that EMS medical directors, administrators, and personnel collaborate with outpatient and hospital-based pediatric experts, especially those in emergency departments, to optimize prehospital emergency care for children. The principles in the policy statement "Pediatric Readiness in Emergency Medical Services Systems" and this accompanying technical report establish a foundation on which to build optimal pediatric care within EMS systems and serve as a resource for clinical and administrative EMS leaders.

In 2012, Bruce Horner guest edited a special issue of "JAC" focused on "Economies of Writing" ("JAC" n3-4 p453-778 2012). In his introduction, he explains that the included essays originated from an October 2011 symposium at the University of Louisville, held in preparation for the similarly-themed 2012 Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. The symposium, "JAC" issue, and subsequent conference raised questions and generated discussion over, in part, the relationships between economies and writing, the values assigned to the work, and the possibilities for change within these systems. Now, Horner and co-editors Brice Nordquist and Susan M. Ryan have continued these important discussions with a new set of authors in their 2017 collection, "Economies of Writing: Revaluations in Rhetoric and Composition" ("JAC" n3-4 p407-795). This collection highlights how economies--"the" economy, our economies, the economic, broadly--inform and permeate all that those in the profession do. In demonstrating this ubiquity, the editors posit that "the economy" is not "a predictable, all-powerful monolith," nor is it "neutral, self-producing, or self-sustaining"; rather, the economic must be understood as political. Economies inform and are informed by institutions, pedagogies, language, media, and public spheres. The economies educators work within both shape and are sustained by ideologies and practices. Addressing topics that range from Pierre Bourdieu's 1977 "The Economics of Linguistic Exchanges" to more recent discussions of circulation and transfer, this collection reveals the intricate valuative systems that define the profession.

ObjectiveWe explored patterns of concomitant psychiatric disorders in a large sample of treatment-seeking children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).MethodsParticipants were 658 children with ASD (age 3-17 years; mean = 7.2 years) in one of six federally-funded multisite randomized clinical trials (RCT) between 1999 and 2014. All children were referred for hyperactivity or irritability. Study designs varied, but all used the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory or Early Childhood Inventory to assess Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional-Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Anxiety Disorders, and Mood Disorders. In addition, several measures in common were used to assess demographic and clinical characteristics.ResultsOf the 658 children, 73% were Caucasian and 59% had an IQ >70. The rates of concomitant disorders across studies were: ADHD 81%, ODD 46%, CD 12%, any anxiety disorder 42%, and any mood disorder 8%. Two or more psychiatric disorders were identified in 66% of the sample. Of those who met criteria for ADHD, 50% also met criteria for ODD and 46% for any anxiety disorder. Associations between types of concomitant disorders and a number of demographic and clinical characteristics are presented.ConclusionIn this well-characterized sample of treatment-seeking children with ASD, rates of concomitant psychiatric disorders were high and the presence of two or more co-occurring disorders was common. Findings highlight the importance of improving diagnostic practice in ASD and understanding possible mechanisms of comorbidity.

Insomnia is common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We recently developed and validated the 21-item Pediatric Autism Insomnia Rating Scale (PAIRS). This report explores the associations and agreements between actigraphy and PAIRS. Children with ASD, with and without sleep problems, were assessed with a battery of parent-rated and clinician measures (N = 134). In a subset (n = 70), a wrist-worn actigraph measured sleep for five consecutive nights. Parents completed logs for scoring sleep intervals. Spearman correlations evaluated associations with the PAIRS and actigraphy indices (sleep onset latency = SOL, wake after sleep onset = WASO, total sleep time = TST, sleep efficiency = SE%). Agreements on "poor sleepers" based on PAIRS total score (≥33) and conventional thresholds for TST and SE% were evaluated with Cohen's Kappa and McNemar's test. Actigraphy data were averaged over 4.64 ± 0.68 nights in 70 children (mean age = 7.3 ± 2.9, 74.3 % male). There were no significant correlations between PAIRS and any actigraphy indices. On TST, 48.6 % (n = 34) and on SE% 52.9 % (n = 37) were classified as "poor sleepers" compared to 32.9 % (n = 23) on PAIRS (kappa = 0.11 for TST and 0.27 for SE%). P-values on McNemar's Chi square test for PAIRS with TST and with SE% were 0.072 and 0.011, respectfully. These results suggest that actigraphy and PAIRS do not agree. Actigraphy TST captures movement and an estimate of specific sleep parameters. PAIRS is a broader measure that incorporates sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety is a common and impairing problem in children with autism spectrum disorder, but little is known about it in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. This article reports on the characteristics of anxiety symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorder using a parent-completed rating scale. One hundred and eighty children (age 3-7 years) participated in a clinical trial of parent training for disruptive behaviors. Anxiety was measured as part of pre-treatment subject characterization with 16 items from the Early Childhood Inventory, a parent-completed scale on child psychiatric symptoms. Parents also completed other measures of behavioral problems. Sixty-seven percent of children were rated by their parents as having two or more clinically significant symptoms of anxiety. There were no differences in the Early Childhood Inventory anxiety severity scores of children with IQ < 70 and those with [greater than or equal to] 70. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with severity of oppositional defiant behavior and social disability. Anxiety symptoms are common in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. These findings are consistent with earlier work in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder. There were no differences in anxiety between children with IQ below 70 and those with IQ of 70 and above. Social withdrawal and oppositional behavior were associated with anxiety in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Georgia Gwinnett College, an access institution serving the most diverse student body of southeast colleges, was awarded National Science Foundation and University System of Georgia STEM-Education Improvement grants to help our students meet the evolving needs of STEM education. One of the initiatives emerging from these resources is the Peer Supplemental Instruction (PSI) program, a modified model of the traditional SI program. SI is a well-documented, high-impact practice in higher education that engenders collaborative learning among students. Since SI was not available on campus, STEM faculty developed the current PSI program, with the aim to support students as they transition from high school to college. PSI is thus offered to students in the gateway courses for biology, chemistry, mathematics, and information technology majors and study sessions incorporate STEM skills, thereby increasing opportunities for students to engage in, and develop, STEM competencies. In the last year, attendance was recorded at 4,123 interactions. Assessment of academic performance of PSI students revealed that participation increased GPAs in PSI-supported courses, particularly in students entering college with low high school GPAs. Moreover, student attitudes towards STEM learning improved and peer students serving as leaders benefited, based on reports of their development of professional skills that are critical to success in college and STEM careers. We present an innovative adaptation of the SI program that can be adopted by STEM faculty, and may be particularly useful to institutions serving underprepared populations, in surmounting the academic success predictability of low high school GPA.

Bedtime and sleep disturbances are ubiquitous in children with autism. The telehealth delivery of a behavior analytic parent training program was earlier reported to be efficacious in improving child sleep and parent sense of competency. Our aim in this brief report was to determine the durability of the telehealth delivered sleep parent training program (SPT) compared to the control condition in this randomized controlled trial. Telehealth delivery could be a means to expand access to such early treatment if efficacious. Parents of young children, ages 2–7 years, with autism and co-occurring sleep disturbances were enrolled in this study. Participants were randomized to either SPT or a comparison arm that included non-sleep related parent education except for one session Sleep Parent Education; SPE). Each participant was individually administered a 5 session program delivered over 10 weeks. Outcome measures were collected at weeks 5 and 10 and at post-treatment follow-up at 16 weeks. Follow-up week 16 data were available for 30 participants randomized to SPT and 24 participants randomized to SPE. Demographics for this follow-up cohort were similar to the full sample. At week 16 follow-up, there was a significant group difference between SPT and SPE the Modified Simonds & Parraga Sleep Questionnaire-Composite Sleep Index (MSPSQ – CSI) (p = 0.011) with an effect size of 0.68. Further, 8 of the 10 children in SPT who were negative responders at the week 10 endpoint were rated as positive responders at week 16 by the treatment masked IE compared to 2 out of 12 in the SPE group (p = 0.008). Post-treatment follow-up data suggests SPT is durable over time compared to SPE, the active control group. Further, for some participants in SPT, a positive responsive emerged after the treatment endpoint. This brief report adds to the efficacy of SPT as a time-limited intervention for insomnia in young autistic children. • Significant improvements of Sleep Parent Training (SPT) was durable at week 16 follow-up compared Sleep Parent Education (SPE) control condition. • Positive response to SPT may emerge after the active 10 week treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep problems are common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and adversely impact daytime functioning. Although no questionnaires have been developed to assess sleep in children with ASD, the 33-item Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) is widely used in this population. We examined the factor structure of the CSHQ in 2872 children (age 4-10 years) enrolled in the Autism Treatment Network. A four-factor solution (Sleep Initiation and Duration, Sleep Anxiety/Co-Sleeping, Night Waking/Parasomnias, and Daytime Alertness) with 5-6 items per factor explained 75% of the total variation. Ten items failed to load on any factor. This abbreviated 23-item four-factor version of this measure may be useful when assessing sleep in children with ASD.

We report on parent outcomes from a randomized clinical trial of parent training (PT) versus psychoeducation (PEP) in 180 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and disruptive behavior. We compare the impact of PT and PEP on parent outcomes: Parenting Stress Index (PSI), Parent Sense of Competence (PSOC), and Caregiver Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ). Mixed-effects linear models evaluated differences at weeks 12 and 24, controlling for baseline scores. Parents in PT reported greater improvement than PEP on the PSOC (ES = 0.34), CGSQ (ES = 0.50), and difficult child subdomain of the PSI (ES = 0.44). This is the largest trial assessing PT in ASD on parent outcomes. PT reduces disruptive behavior in children, and improves parental competence while reducing parental stress and parental strain.

This form, used at UCI from September 2005 through September 2012, was based on the form used at UCLA. The form was opened as part of the morning's login at the reference desks. Reference activitives were recorded throughout the day; the form was closed when the reference desk closed. Langson Library reference had separate forms for ON and OFF the desk statistics, as did the reference desks in the other UCI Libraries,

As the age of electronic information matures, library websites have emerged as primary service points that inform users of the services and resources available to them. Regardless of how rich the resources, how pleasing the graphic design, how easy the navigation, and how actively librarians promote the use of the website, the truth is that the majority of library websites serve simply as link providers, many of which are accompanied by explanatory text. In this paper, we will present a proof of concept that we can use to proactively entice and inform users about services and resources selected to meet their individual information needs. The proof of concept is built using information and tools that are readily available to any library. We will showcase examples of electronically mediated services with differing levels of ease of implementation.

Reference and Information Service Providers as part of each librarian’s training program. The guidelines include approachability, interest, listening /inquiry, searching, and follow-up as important behaviors in reference transactions. During fiscal year, 2009/2010, all reference librarians (a total of 20 librarians who provide in person and electronic reference service) were asked to personally identify at least one reference assessment goal. The team developed an anonymous self-assessment process by having librarians choose a specific skill to focus on for one year, then developing a schedule that requires each librarian to engage in regular self-reflection on his or her reference skills and practice, then articulating their thoughts and self-assessment. The poster will show the questions we asked each librarian to reflect upon; how those questions changed with each iteration of the exercise; sample responses, broad themes and commonalities of what people wanted to work on; how we used this information to develop more formal training; and librarians' satisfaction (or lack of) with this model of reference assessment.