Infant vocalizing and phenotypic outcomes in autism: Evidence from the first 2 years

Infant vocalizations are early-emerging communicative markers shown to be atypical in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but few longitudinal, prospective studies exist. In this study, 23,850 infant vocalizations from infants at low (LR)- and high (HR)-risk for ASD (HR-ASD = 23, female = 3; HR-Neg = 35, female = 13; LR = 32, female = 10; 80% White; collected from 2007 to 2017 near Philadelphia) were analyzed at 6, 12, and 24 months. At 12 months, HR-ASD infants produced fewer vocalizations than HR-Neg infants. From 6 to 24 months, HR-Neg infants demonstrated steeper vocalization growth compared to HR-ASD and LR infants. Finally, among HR infants, vocalizing at 12 months was associated with language, social phenotype, and diagnosis at age 2. Infant vocalizing is an objective behavioral marker that could facilitate earlier detection of ASD.     

Open government

Access to government information in electronic form is essential to the realization of a civil society, democratization, and a rule of law. Freedom of information issues are centrally important in countries around the world, and the Internet's World Wide Web offers the potential to provide freedom of information at low cost. Achieving a sound information policy to promote open government requires constant vigilance by those who care about the goal. The greatest threat is state sponsored monopoly. State sponsored monopolies are inimical to open government and rule of law because they open the possibility of censorship, because they raise prices and increase cost, and because they deprive the public of new technology developments. Agencies should never seek to restrict redissemination or to prescribe prices at which information may be distributed to redisseminated. Copyright law may be interpreted to exclude the possibility of copyright in basic public information. Finally, the proposed database protection treaty now pending before the World Intellectual Property Organization should be opposed, unless drafters add a compulsory license provision to mandate multiple sources and channels for public information locked up by intellectual property and database rights.     

ACADEMIC LEADERSHIPS VIEWS OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY AND BLACK STUDENTS: THE CASE OF HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

The purpose of this study was to understand academic leadership's views of the field of school psychology. This is the first study that has attempted to incorporate the views of historically Black college and university (HBCU) Psychology Department Chairs' regarding the field of school psychology and the potential development of school psychology programs at HBCUs. The results indicated that Department Chairs at HBCUs are not recommending the field of school psychology to their students based on a variety of reasons related to their views of the field (e.g., lack of focus on Black research issues). Despite the shortage of school psychologists and ample career opportunities, Department chairs in our sample do not recommend the field of school psychology as a first option graduate school choice. Implications are discussed in terms of increasing the number of African Americans in the field of school psychology.