Live Rebroadcast: 2018 Presidential Address
 Ecological Validity and the Measurement of Executive Functioning in Children

Wednesday, August 28, 2019
12:00pm - 1:00pm Eastern time
1.0 CE Credit

Presented by:
Cheryl H. Silver, Ph.D.









The objective of this presentation is to summarize the issue of ecological validity as it applies to the measurement of executive functioning in children.  Topics will include comparing and contrasting information obtained from performance-based tests and parent rating scales.  The audience will be invited to consider informant bias in ratings of child behaviors.  Methods that could be used to increase ecological validity of child behavior assessment will be discussed.

After the webinar, participants will be able to:
1. Explain the challenges of measuring executive functioning in children.
2. Discuss the differences between measurement of executive functioning using performance-based tests vs. rating scales.
3. Describe at least one methodology that could be used to increase ecological validity of executive functioning measurement in children.

Target Audience:  Neuropsychologists
Instructional Level: Introductory- Intermediate

Dr. Cheryl H. Silver earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and obtained her first real professional job writing behavioral objectives for a federal study of effective educational settings for children with learning disabilities.  Recruited as a teacher’s aide for the impressive annual salary of $3,000., she became fascinated with the kinds of cognitive impairments displayed by children with reading disabilities and decided to make that her career.  She earned a master’s degree in psychology at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, where she studied with a local learning disabilities expert and obtained a position in pediatric neurology at the Medical College of Virginia.  It was at MCV in the late 1970s where she first learned of a discipline called neuropsychology.  However, the specialty of School Psychology appealed to her interest in childhood learning disorders, and she moved to Texas in 1980 to study with school psychology, special education, and neuropsychology faculty (including Erin Bigler) at the University of Texas at Austin.  In 1984, she moved to Dallas to take a combined internship in clinical, school, and neuropsychology settings, and stayed for her postdoctoral fellowship, becoming the first neuropsychology postdoc at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  After a short but worthwhile period of employment in a rehab hospital, she returned to UT Southwestern as a faculty member, involved in clinical services, teaching, and research.  Attaining the academic rank of professor, she became the Program Director for a master’s degree program in Rehabilitation Counseling, which she held for the last 12 years of her 30-year career. 

New Frontiers in Brain Stimulation

Wednesday, September 11, 2019
12:00pm - 1:30pm Eastern time
1.5 CE Credits

Presented by:
Frank MacMaster, Ph.D.
Alberta Children's Hospital
Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary

Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (or NiBS) methods include Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Over the past decade, both of these methods have experienced explosive growth in their application both to understand the human brain and to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. In this course, we will discuss NiBS and its application in youth. First, we will explain the types of NiBS currently in use, and their potential risks and benefits. Second, we will address their use as a probe of brain function. Third, we will explore their application in neuropsychiatric disorders in youth.

After the webinar, participants will be able to:
1. Explain the types of NiBS currently in use, and list their potential risks and benefits. 
2. Discuss the use of NiBS methods as a probe of brain function. 
3. Describe the application of NiBS methods in neuropsychiatric disorders in youth.

Target Audience: Neuropsychologists who work with children and adolescents in clinical settings from hospitals to schools.
Instructional Level: Intermediate

Frank MacMaster is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Paediatrics, University of Calgary. He is also the Scientific for the Addictions and Mental Health Strategic Clinical Network in Alberta Health Services. He received his bachelors in psychology for Saint Mary's University, completed doctoral work at Dalhousie University in neurobiology, and a postdoctoral fellowship in brain imaging in child psychiatry at Wayne State University. Dr. MacMaster has received funding from NARSAD, the Canadian Institute for Health Research, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, among other honors. 
He has over 88 peer-reviewed papers and has been cited over 3700 times. His work is focused on using neuroimaging methods to better understand the underlying neurobiology and impact of novel interventions like neurostimulation in child and adolescent mental health.