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…

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurobehavioral disorder that consists of simple and complex tics. This disorder can significantly affect a child's self-esteem and academic success. Although some believe that only adults are affected, this disorder occurs most frequently in early childhood and symptoms decrease with age. Diagnosis of this disorder can…

Objective: Behavioral difficulties increase the risk that children will experience negative placement disruptions while in foster care. Chamberlain et al. (2006) found that the Parent Daily Report (PDR), a brief measure of parent-reported child behaviors, was a strong predictor of negative placement changes over 1 year among children receiving…

The responsibility of managing student behavior has become a heightened concern for general education teachers as a result of increased accountability for student gains. Although functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) are widely recommended for use in such situations, there are clear indications that this evidence-based practice is not occurring…

This study explored the importance of using relevant measures when evaluating the effectiveness of early childhood interventions. Data from the federally-funded evaluation of the Comprehensive Child Development Program were used to examine whether the behavior measure, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), was an appropriate tool for the diverse…

This article describes a data-informed intervention to close the gap between student and teacher perceptions of school rules and improve student behavior. The student and teacher agreement realignment strategy was pilot tested over 36 weeks with 10 middle school students receiving services for special education in the eligibility category of…

A teacher requested behavioral consultation services to address a first-grade student's disruptive behavior. Functional behavior assessment (FBA) suggested the behavior was being reinforced by "negative" teacher attention (e.g., reprimands, redirections, response cost). Based on this analysis, the teacher and consultant posited that this student…

This article describes an effective model for employing paraprofessionals to provide behavioral support for students in a general education setting. Behavioral health assistants (BHAs) worked under the supervision of school psychologists and counselors and provided behavioral interventions for students with behavioral goals on their individualized…

Increasingly, schools have been adopting comprehensive, three-tiered response to intervention (RTI) systems to support students in both academics and social behavior. But with each new systems change initiative comes separate teams, data, and training and coaching systems. Given the intensity of resources required to implement and sustain such…

The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of providing an intervention involving massage and yoga in a school exclusively for male disadvantaged adolescents who experience emotional and behavioural difficulties. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires completed by teachers and pupils prior to, and completion of,…

This case study explores the possibility of affecting classroom behaviors by modifying the classroom environment. Although this type of research previously has been conducted in self-contained special education classrooms (Guardino, 2009), this is the first study to explore modifications in an inclusive classroom. The results of this study align…

Using a prospective longitudinal design, this study investigated factors associated with resilience in 20-year-old offspring of depressed mothers (n = 648). Resilient youth were operationally defined as those whose mothers were depressed but who themselves had no history of recurrent depression and currently evidenced adequate academic or work and…

Research supports that office referral data is useful in informing programmatic decisions and planning interventions such as Positive Behavior Supports (PBS). Knowledge of patterns of office referrals may facilitate development of interventions that target specific groups. This study examines patterns in office referrals within an urban district…

We examine whether teachers' communicator style relates to student engagement, teacher-student relationships, student perceptions of teacher immediacy, as well as observer ratings of delivery skills during the implementation of All Stars, a middle school-based substance use prevention program. Data from 48 teachers who taught All Stars up to 3…

African American students are one of the historically disadvantaged groups by the public education system. Related to this phenomenon is the overrepresentation of African American children in special education due to disability diagnoses, which has been referred to as disproportionality. It has been hypothesized that disproportionality is due to…