Rates of parental incarceration in the USA have increased dramatically over the past four decades. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study identified parental incarceration as one of several risk factors related to multiple health outcomes during childhood and adulthood. Parents and other caregivers are widely regarded as sources of resilience for…

Since the landmark enactment of Education of the Handicapped Act in 1975, special education supports and services have been provided to children with disabilities. Although costly, the intentionality of these specialized services has been to advance the educational and societal opportunities of children with disabilities as they progress to…

This study assessed the effectiveness of an attention intervention program (Computerized Progressive Attentional Training; CPAT) in improving academic performance of children with ASD. Fifteen 6-10 year olds with ASD attending a mainstream and a special school were assigned to an experimental (CPAT; n = 8) and active control (computer games; n =…

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) experience significant difficulties in attention, learning, executive functions, and behavioral regulation. Emerging evidence suggests that computerized cognitive training may remediate these impairments. In a double blind controlled trial, 76 children with IDD (4-11 years) were…

We sought to determine whether HBOT leads to parental reported behavioral changes and alterations in cytokines in children with ASD. Ten children completed 80 sessions of HBOT and all improved by 2 points on the clinician-rated CGI-I scale (much improved) as well as several parent-completed measures of behavior. The lack of a control group limits…

Efficacy and safety of 2 risperidone doses were evaluated in children and adolescents with autism. Patients (N = 96; 5-17 years), received risperidone (low-dose: 0.125 mg/day [20 to <45 kg], 0.175 mg/day [>45 kg] or high-dose: 1.25 mg/day [20 to <45 kg], 1.75 mg/day [>45 kg]) or placebo. Mean baseline (range 27-29) to endpoint change…

Introduction: The use of horses in therapy has a fairly long history. There are many references to the therapeutic benefits of this activity. Such therapies have been undergoing a boom internationally in recent years. However scientific research into the effective use of this activity in children with autism is still in the early stages of…

We gathered individual participant data from 16 group design studies on behavioral intervention for children with autism. In these studies, 309 children received behavioral intervention, 39 received comparison interventions, and 105 were in a control group. More children who underwent behavioral intervention achieved reliable change in IQ (29.8%)…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the behavioral and learning benefit found from the use of therapy balls as classroom seats in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (e.g., Schilling, Washington, Billingsley, & Deitz, 2003) generalizes to children with dyslexia who suffer from similar attention problems…

There is increasing demand for access to effective interventions for families who have children with autism. Self-directed learning models have been successfully used with other populations as a way to reduce the service-need discrepancy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, through a randomized clinical trial, whether the use of a…

Since many children with learning disabilities (LD) face interpersonal conflict resolution problems, this study examines the efficacy of social stories in helping them choose more appropriate interpersonal conflict resolution strategies. A social story was recorded and played to the 31 children with LD in the experimental group twice a week for a…

The use of case-control methodology as an applied policy/planning research tool in assessing the potential effectiveness of behavioral interventions is studied in connection with diarrhea control in Zaire. Results with 107 matched pairs of children demonstrate the importance of hygiene-related knowledge and the utility of the research approach.…