Validation of the Spanish Version of PICCOLO for Assessing Caregiver Strengths in Supporting the Development of Children with Disabilities

Early intervention research has stressed the need to identify parenting behaviors that support developmental outcomes. In children with disabilities, promoting developmentally sensitive interactions within daily routines is of paramount importance. The PICCOLO observational tool assesses parent–child interactions and thus provides practitioners with a useful instrument to guide their professional practices. However, to date, it has not been validated in children with developmental disorders such as autism and/or intellectual disability, even though this population is among those most likely to present developmental difficulties. In the current study, we examined the vlaidity of the Spanish version of the PICCOLO in a sample of 210 mother–child dyads. Our results showed that the dimensional structure of the Spanish version aligns with the original structure; most factor loadings were high and statistically significant. Percentile scores were also shown to provide professionals with practical information when applying the PICCOLO in families of children with disabilities.