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Parent–Teacher Agreement on Social Skills and Behavior Problems Among Ethnically Diverse Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Parents and teachers provide complimentary information in the assessment of preschoolers so it is important to understand parent–teacher agreement, especially for children with autism. Parents and teachers rated an ethnically diverse sample of preschoolers with autism (N = 257; 67% Latino) on the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (LeBuffe and Naglieri in Devereux Early Childhood Assessment: User’s guide, Kaplan Press, Lewisville, 1999). Correlations between parent and teacher ratings were moderate and significant for social skills (r = 0.20–0.37) but near zero for behavioral concerns. Parents rated children as having stronger social skills and fewer behavioral concerns than teachers, unlike prior research with typically developing preschoolers. Both informants rated White/other children more positively than minority children on several subscales, although agreement was similar across groups. Implications for practice are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by funding from the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade/Monroe. We would like to thank all of the community partners involved in the Miami School Readiness Project, including Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, 3F5, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030, USA

    Brittany Thompson & Adam Winsler

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  1. Brittany Thompson
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  2. Adam Winsler
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Contributions

BT jointly conceived the sub-study, performed the statistical analysis, interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. AW conceived of, and received funding for, the larger study, participated in the design and coordination of the original and sub-study, assisted with the interpretation of the data, and provided substantial feedback and editing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Brittany Thompson.

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Brittany Thompson and Adam Winsler declare they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all families for children included in this study to participate in the school readiness assessment project in the child’s public-school pre-k program.

Research involving Animal Rights

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Thompson, B., Winsler, A. Parent–Teacher Agreement on Social Skills and Behavior Problems Among Ethnically Diverse Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 3163–3175 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3570-5

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