Exposure to traumatic events in childhood and adolescence can have lasting negative social, emotional, and educational effects. For schools, or any environment that serves children, to be truly trauma-informed, they must address three crucial areas: safety, connection, and emotional and behavioral regulation. This article, which is excerpted from…

Positive reinforcement is a research-based practice essential for supporting young children's use of appropriate behaviors and skills. The application of positive reinforcement also is consistent with recommendations by national organizations for early childhood and early childhood special education. In this article, we describe eight guidelines…

Most definitions of emotionally disturbed youngsters suggest that disturbances in the child's behavior patterns cause academic and social problems which affect the child and his peers. While the process of identification may be facilitated by operational criteria within a definition, these factors are noticeably absent from definitions of…

Susan Albrecht's career has spanned more than 40 years. During those years she has served as an English teacher, school psychologist, behavior consultant, coordinator of services, and special education faculty member. Her contributions to the field include leadership positions with the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders. Susan shared…

The family-centered medical home describes an approach to providing comprehensive primary care. Research advances in developmental neuroscience, genetics, and epigenetics offer a framework for understanding the dynamic process of brain development. It is this process that sets the life-course trajectory for an individual; in turn, a child's…

Over the past several decades, behavioral interventions have produced positive and significant outcomes for children with a wide range of challenging behaviors. Because parents probably have the most information regarding the extent and history of their child's difficulties and the most knowledge of their child's home environment, it is essential…

What causes challenging behavior and what can adults do about it? That is a basic question parents and caregivers face everyday. Some needs are easy to meet, others take more work, and some require outside help. This article is the fourth and final segment of a multi-part series about dealing with Challenging Behavior, both at home and school. The…

As more young children enter school settings to attend early childhood programs, early childhood teachers and school psychologists have been charged with supporting a growing number of young children with chronic problem behaviors that put them at risk for the development of emotional/behavioral disorders (EBDs). There is a need for effective,…

Many preschool, Head Start, and kindergarten educators of young children express concern about the number of children who exhibit frequent challenging behaviors and report that managing these behaviors is difficult within these classrooms. This article describes research-based strategies with practical applications that can be used as part of…

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neurobiological condition affecting 1 of every 200 school-age children. OCD greatly affects students' academic, behavioral, and social functioning, and it can lead to additional problem such as depression. To effectively collaborate with other individuals providing appropriate support to students with OCD,…

The use of antipsychotic medications within the school-age population is rapidly increasing. Although typical antipsychotics may be used in rare cases, this influx is largely secondary to the availability of the atypical antipsychotics. Reduction of possible adverse effects and increased efficacy represent the primary basis for the atypical…

Behavior problems and parental expectations and practices were studied in a sample of 58 toddlers with developmental disabilities who were consecutively referred to a mental health clinic. The majority of children (70.7%) exceeded the clinical cut-off score for significant behavior problems including tantrums, aggression, defiance, and…

Co-existence of disorders--including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, tic disorder, developmental coordination disorder, and autism spectrum disorder--and sharing of symptoms across disorders (sometimes referred to as comorbidity) is the rule rather than the exception in child psychiatry and developmental…

Freud's psychodynamic theory is predominantly based on case histories of patients who displayed abnormal behavior. From a scientific point of view, Freud's analyses of these cases are unacceptable because the key concepts of his theory cannot be tested empirically. However, in one respect, Freud was totally right: most forms of abnormal behavior…

We describe the historic and current use of brief experimental analysis procedures in outpatient clinic and home settings. We discuss some applications of the designs and suggest design modifications for improving internal validity. We describe our application of the designs to longitudinal, in-home programs for children with severe behavior…