Early Discovery is a program that supports mildly delayed young children who did not qualify for Part B/C services. Our goals were to: (1) provide high-quality services; (2) educate and empower parents/caregivers; (3) link families to community resources; and (4) reduce the need for special education. Services included speech-language,…

This article describes Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC), a model based on extensive research that is designed for feasibility and effectiveness for treating challenging behaviors in classroom settings. This model is designed to meet the needs of children with and without disabilities who engage in challenging behavior that…

A comprehensive self-management intervention was utilized to increase the on-task behavior of three African American students within an urban middle-school setting. The intervention was designed to necessitate minimal management on the part of the general education classroom teacher by utilizing an electronic prompting device, as well as a…

Anxiety disorders in youth are common and, if left untreated, can lead to a variety of negative sequelae. Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious treatment for anxiety disorders in youth with preliminary evidence showing that CBT can be successfully transported into schools. The…

Assessment and identification of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is complex and involves multiple techniques, levels, and participants. While federal law sets the general parameters for identification in school settings, these criteria are vague and may lead to inconsistencies in selection and interpretation of assessment…

Sometimes educators are puzzled by how students can demonstrate a social skill perfectly during a practice session in a social skills curriculum but fail to use the same skill in real-life situations. Students with a lack of social skills are more likely to experience teacher and peer rejection, and are more at risk for negative life outcomes,…

Many researchers and clinicians believe that the therapeutic relationship is essential in bringing about clinical change. Empirical research to support this contention is scarce in part due to the difficulty of specifying and measuring theoretically derived mechanisms of change and the important dimensions of the client-therapist relationship.…

A unique application of the Many-Facet Rasch Model (MFRM) is introduced as the preferred method for evaluating the psychometric properties of a measure of therapist adherence to Contingency Management (CM) treatment of adolescent substance use. The utility of psychometric methods based in Classical Test Theory was limited by complexities of the…

Direct observation in natural settings has been recognized for nearly a century as an important methodology to capture the nuances of children's behavior for research, clinical assessment, and program evaluation. These ecologically valid descriptive data complement more widely used behavior rating scales to evaluate the impact of intervention…

In the last few decades, the field of dual diagnosis as applied to those with intellectual disabilities has boasted a monumental surge in assessment devices and treatment approaches. These relatively recent advances include those in the development of behavior modification principles and procedures that have had a dramatic impact on services for…

This manual describes a self-monitoring program for use in special education classes and residential treatment programs. The procedure can be adapted to fit almost any program already using daily point sheets or can be used to develop a new program. The procedure requires both student and teacher observation of behaviors and rewards students for…

This report describes the first module of the "First Steps" program, an early intervention program for at-risk kindergartners who show the early signs of antisocial behavior patterns. This module presents four options for screening and identifying kindergarten students at risk for antisocial behavior patterns. In option one, the…