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.     

Strategic planning and strategic thinking clothed in STRATEGO

This article shares experiences that participants had playing the game of STRATEGO and how the activity may be linked to strategic planning and thinking. Among the human performance technology implications of playing this game are that gamers agreed on a framework for rules, took stock on where they wanted to go in the future, and generated a risk plan. Players supervised their strategic process, checked the game's pulse, and gave a shot in the arm when necessary.     

Investigating the role of corporate credibility in corporate social marketing: A case study of environmental initiatives by professional sport organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand how professional sport organizations might influence consumer voluntary behavior through their corporate social marketing (CSM) initiatives by focusing on the role of corporate credibility. The study examined consumer responses to environmental initiatives by two professional sport teams, and showed that organizational and program characteristics were associated with the corporate credibility of the teams in supporting environmental protection (i.e., environmental credibility). Environmental credibility, in turn, was found to have a positive association with consumer pro-environmental behavior measured by daily recycling involvement and recycling intentions during the teams’ home games. The results further revealed that environmental credibility was more strongly associated with recycling intentions during games for respondents who were less involved in environmental issues. Together, these findings suggest that professional sport organizations can be an effective vehicle for socially beneficial behavior by increasing their credibility in CSM involvement.     

Community‐based early intervention for children with behavioural,emotional and social problems: evaluation of the Scallywags Scheme

Scallywags is a community‐based, early intervention programme for young children (aged 3–7) with behavioural, emotional and social problems, which integrates work in the home and school with a parenting curriculum and direct work with children. A pre‐post intervention study across multi‐sites of 340 participants is reported. Using standardised measures, the study found statistically significant reductions in problems at home and school experienced by children who completed the programme, and in parental stress levels. Participation was found to be high and the project acceptable to parents, many of whom would be described as hard to reach. The rigorous evaluation of this real‐life service and its positive outcomes highlight the potential of such programmes to tackle the needs of these children and families, and help prevent longer‐term problems associated with early onset behavioural problems, including social exclusion, antisocial behaviour and educational failure.     

The diagnostic assessment of word recognition and phonic skills in five‐year‐olds

Parallel versions of a new multiple‐choice word‐recognition test were administered to 1019 and 590 Year‐1 pupils respectively. The test format was based on a published test of Word Recognition and Phonic Skills and was intended to provide reliable diagnostic information. It was found that internally consistent measures of three types of word recognition error could be derived (relating to consonants, vowels and phoneme omission), but that scales for letter order errors were unreliable. Information about the length of words which an individual can usually recognise, the proportion of high frequency to low frequency words recognised and the relative ease of recognising regular and irregular words were also considered as having possible implications for teaching. Of these measures, only word length was found to be a strong independent predictor of word recognition. Implications of these findings for the future development of norm‐referenced tests that at the same time provide objective feedback about individual strengths and weaknesses are discussed.