The Reliability of Observations of Young Children's Engagement: An Application of Generalizability Theory.

Forty-seven young children, 15 with disabilities, were observed 4 times for types and levels of engagement. Results indicated that engagement is difficult to measure through molecular data collection techniques because of error in dependability measures. The number of observed sessions could be increased to achieve generalizability, but increases in dependability achieved with additional raters were minimal. (JDD)