A reliable and valid assessment is necessary for the effective delivery of services to those with mental retardation (MR). With constraints placed on financial and human resources, assessment must be comprehensive, yet cost-effective. We describe a method of assessment that operates within these constraints using informant-based measures that assess adaptive and maladaptive behavior, psychiatri...

The present study examined whether atypical visual processing is related to the level of social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Thirty-eight young children with ASD (29 boys, 9 girls) were included. Atypical visual processing was assessed by coding the number of lateral glances and the amount of object grouping behavior on videotaped observations of the ADOS (aged 35 ± 9...

Although flat affect and social skills deficits are generally considered to be distinct impairments in schizophrenia, flat affect is typically assessed via an interview - an inherently social context. To the extent that emotional expressivity is an important component of socially appropriate interaction, it is possible that schizophrenic patients' diminished expressiveness in a social situation...

PURPOSE To explore parents' views of the activities and participation of children with cerebral palsy (CP) with a range of communicative abilities and the factors (personal and environmental) that influenced these. METHODS Thirteen parents of children with CP aged 4-9 years participated in semi-structured individual interviews. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. ...

In this paper, the authors cite research indicating that youth may be the single age group most at risk of becoming homeless, yet comparatively little research has been done in the past decade on this vulnerable population. Some important progress has been made, including longitudinal studies on youth “aging out” of foster care. After reviewing the characteristics of homeless youth, the authors...

Schools are an important setting for interventions aimed at preventing alcohol use and abuse among adolescents. A range of school-based interventions have been developed to prevent or delay the onset of alcohol use, most of which are targeted to middle-school students. Most of these interventions seek to reduce risk factors for alcohol use at the individual level, whereas other interventions al...

Brains are dynamic systems in which learning tends towards isolation by increasing specialization of cognitive skills. Induction of social skills for cooperative behavior requires "unlearning" in social contexts. A hypothesis is proposed by which oxytocin and related neuropeptides play a key role in meltdown of prior learning in preparation for new learning. This has implications for clinical m...

Background: Bullying and lack of social skills are important factors for future risk-related problems such as delinquency and feelings of rejection in children. The present study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of Coloring Mandala as Jungian art to reduce bullying and increase social skills in Afghan boys working children. Methods: It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest and p...

This paper presents a theory of social policy preferences that emphasizes the role of skills. The key to our argument is that individuals who have made risky investments in skills will demand insurance against the possible future loss of income from those investments. Most income is derived from past investments in skills, and because the transferability of skills is inversely related to their ...

The increasing popularity of Facebook among adolescents has stimulated research to investigate the relationship between Facebook use and loneliness, which is particularly prevalent in adolescence. The aim of the present study was to improve our understanding of the relationship between Facebook use and loneliness. Specifically, we examined how Facebook motives and two relationship-specific form...