Psychologists' role in family-centered approach to practice, training, and research with young children.

Family-centered, community-based, coordinated care for children with special needs is presented as the best practice model for providing services to children and families. Psychologists must learn to play an active role in this frame-work that both integrates psychology with other health and education disciplines and uses the broad spectrum of psychological knowledge about families, development, community organization, and intervention strategies. Key principles of family-centered child psychology affect practice research and training. The psychologist becomes part of a team created to support families as the primary care-givers of their children. Training programs must reorganize the types of experiences both in the classroom and the field to train new psychologists within this model. As mandates for family-centered care affect policies at the state and federal levels, research will remain a critical factor in understanding the effects of these policy shifts on child and family functioning and the delivery of services.

Georgetown Adolescent Psychosocial Rating Scale.

UNLABELLED: The Georgetown Adolescent Psychosocial Rating Scale (GAPRS) was developed as a clinical tool to be used in the evaluation of the psychosocial development of the adolescent. Preliminary findings have shown it to be useful in assessing normal psychosocial development and identifying deviant states. The GAPRS was developed in a clinical setting over a 5-year period as a questionnaire with the statistical ability to assess adolescent psychosocial development. The data from this study support the GAPRS as a promising new clinical tool to be used with the adolescent patient for assessing normal and deviant psychosocial maturation in an efficient and concise manner. SPECULATION: Adolescent psychosocial maturation can be measured using key questions to measure normal development and deviant states.

The effect of a token economy on dietary compliance for children on hemodialysis.

Adherence to dietary restrictions is a recurring problem for children on hemodialysis. The effect of behavior modification in maintaining dietary control is reported for four patients aged 11 to 18 years. Weight gain, potassium level, and blood urea nitrogen were utilized as criteria measures. A token reinforcement program implemented by the hemodialysis team resulted in significant changes in the dietary pattern of the children. The average weight gain between dialysis sessions for the four subjects during treatment was reduced by 45% and the degree of weight fluctuation was lessened. Potassium levels and BUN were controlled to their appropriate level for subjects who initially exceeded the criterion level. With the withdrawal of weight gain from the contingency system, increase of weight gain between dialysis sessions was noted for all subjects.

Stability and comparability of intellectual measures for cerebral-palsied preschoolers.

Intelligence test scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Merrill Palmer Scale were studied for 23 cerebral-palsied children to determine the stability and comparability of these measures during the preschool years as well as the relationship of pyschological gains or losses to clinical diagnoses of the children. Test and posttest data were analyzed for subjects who had participated for one year in a special preschool program for children with neuromotor problems. A high correlation was found between the two intelligence tests both on pretesting (r = .89) and posttesting (r = .83). No significant differences were observed between IQs attained at the three-year level and IQs attained at the four-year level. No associative pattern between etiology of the disability, neuromotor involvement, and intelligence test patterns was determined.