As the number of students with disabilities within residence halls increases, their interactions with other residents can become problematic; in many instances, students without disabilities may not understand the behavior of their peers with disabilities and vice versa. Misunderstandings are compounded by the fact that 84% of students with…

Drawing on a sample of twin children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B; Snow et al., 2009), the current study analyzed 2 of the most prominent predictors of externalizing behavioral problems (EBP) in children: (a) parental use of spankings and (b) childhood self-regulation. A variety of statistical techniques were…

While theories on the etiology of sexually problematic and offending behavior have become increasingly developmental in their perspective, treatment approaches that are utilized to address these issues have not significantly changed to address this thinking. Adolescent behavioral problems are especially linked to a wide range of personal and…

Children play more vigorously and more productively when their teachers have formal education or training in the importance of play. Children with challenging play behavior in the play create a difficult situation for pre-service preschool teachers, affecting their achievement in the program objectives. Issues of challenging behavior in preschool…

Background: The high prevalence of attention problems in children warrants concern, as it is a risk factor for internalizing and externalizing problems. There lies a need to understand possible factors that may mediate this link so that interventions may be targeted to alleviate these mediators and interrupt the link between attention problems and…

Providing effective behavioral supports to decrease challenging behavior and replace it with appropriate alternative skills is essential to meeting the needs of many individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It is also necessary for fulfilling the requirements of Medicaid-funded individual support plans and is important…

Why do so many traditionally aged college students engage in inappropriate behaviors, even when they are smart enough to know better? To answer this question, Gregory S. Blimling looks at some of the latest neuroscience research and, in doing so, introduces a new dimension to understanding psychosocial development in college…

Studies of adolescent or parent-based twins suggest that gene-environment correlation (rGE) is an important mechanism underlying parent-adolescent relationships. However, information on how parents' and children's genes and environments influence correlated parent "and" child behaviors is needed to distinguish types of rGE. The present…

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are more likely to engage in inappropriate play (e.g., stereotypy, repetitive behavior) with their preferred items given as reinforcers. Considering the stereotyped behavior is a core characteristic of ASD aimed to reduce, it is necessary to identify alternative reinforcers that does not encourage…

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of a behavioral treatment package to reduce chronic sleep problems in children with Angelman Syndrome. Participants were five children, 2-11 years-of-age. Parents maintained sleep diaries to record sleep and disruptive nighttime behaviors. Actigraphy was added to provide…

Recent research suggests that fetal exposure to increased maternal body mass index (BMI) during pregnancy may be associated with psychopathology later in life. When this link first emerges, and if it is due to intrauterine exposures or confounding variables is not known. We therefore assessed associations between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and:…

Social competence is vital for healthy development (Canto-Sperber & Dupuy, 2001; Spence, Barrett & Tuner, 2003). Beginning in childhood and heavily influenced by culture, social competence develops as we combine personal and environmental resources for positive social outcomes and includes the absence of negative behaviors alongside the…

A central problem in the application of exploratory factor analysis is deciding how many factors to retain ("m"). Although this is inherently a model selection problem, a model selection perspective is rarely adopted for this task. We suggest that Cudeck and Henly's (1991) framework can be applied to guide the selection process.…

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), a neurodevelopmental disorder primarily characterized by hyperphagia and food preoccupations, is caused by the absence of expression of the paternally active genes in the proximal arm of chromosome 15. Although maladaptive behavior and the cognitive profile in PWS have been well characterized, social functioning has…

This study included brief functional analyses and treatment for motor tics exhibited by two children with Tourette Syndrome. Brief functional analyses were conducted in an outpatient treatment center and results were used to develop individualized habit reversal procedures. Treatment data were collected in clinic for one child and in clinic and…