Background: Children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at high risk for developing significant anxiety. Anxiety can adversely impact functioning across school, home and community environments. Cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) are frequently used with success for children with anxiety symptoms. Modified CBT interventions…

Data from 1433 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) participating in the Simons Simplex Collection were examined to (1) investigate change in social-communication symptoms, and (2) examine predictors of improvement, particularly community-based treatments. Measures included the "Autism Diagnostic Interview--Revised"…

The objective of this study was to facilitate the bidirectional communication between researchers and clinicians about the treatment of childhood anxiety disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. Forty-four children were assessed before and after cognitive behavioral treatment with the parent versions of the Spence Child Anxiety Scale…

Top-ranked items were identified during 30-min free-operant preference assessments for 9 individuals. Data from each session were analyzed to identify the item (a) that was engaged with first in each session and (b) to which the most responding was allocated after 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, and 25 min had elapsed in each session. The results…

Anxiety disorders have been found to be highly comorbid with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Even so, the identification and dissemination of empirically supported treatments for anxiety in adults or children who have ASD has lagged behind the larger evidence-based trend. This review examines the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy as a…

Background: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been home to the world's deadliest conflict since World War II and is reported to have the largest number of child soldiers in the world. Despite evidence of the debilitating impact of war, no group-based mental health or psychosocial intervention has been evaluated in a randomised controlled…

Comparative studies of forward and backward chaining have led some to suggest that sensitivity to each teaching procedure may be idiosyncratic across learners and tasks. The purposes of the current study were threefold. First, we assessed differential sensitivity to each chaining procedure within children when presented with multiple learning…

Behavioral momentum theory provides a quantitative account of how reinforcers experienced within a discriminative stimulus context govern the persistence of behavior that occurs in that context. The theory suggests that all reinforcers obtained in the presence of a discriminative stimulus increase resistance to change, regardless of whether those…

Anxiety and depressive disorders may pose a long-term, deleterious impact on youth, prompting a need for early and effective prevention of such concerns. A growing body of research has examined universal prevention programs targeting these emotional disorders in childhood. While most universal prevention programs are offered within the school…

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) impact all areas of a person's life resulting in deficits in language, social behavior, and intellectual abilities as well as the development of repetitive behaviors that can greatly restrict access to the community and quality of life. Intensive behavioral intervention (IBI) has repeatedly been shown to be…

Research into the determinants and developmental course of fragile X syndrome (FXS) has made remarkable progress over the last 25 years. However, treatments to ameliorate the symptoms of FXS have been less forthcoming. While there is optimism in the field that the pace of intervention research is quickening, there has been a bias toward…

We trained 3 mothers of children with autism to create, implement, and systematically fade scripts to promote vocal initiations during play. All 3 children's scripted and unscripted initiations increased after the introduction and fading of scripts, and unscripted initiations were maintained at the 2-week follow-up. The results indicate that…

Three children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disabilities emitted a high rate of mands and a low-to-zero rate of appropriate play responses when the two responses were reinforced on concurrent Fixed Ratio 1 (FR1) schedules. When mands were reinforced on an FR10 schedule and play responses were concurrently reinforced on an FR1 schedule,…

This study evaluated a locally developed cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) intervention program in a public elementary school. In the prevention approach, 118 children were randomly assigned either to an 8-week intervention or to a wait-list control. Results of statistical analysis indicated that the manualized CBT intervention did not reduce…

There has been a growing interest in the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in school settings by educational psychologists in England. This small-scale study set out to explore the effectiveness of a school-based, eight-session CBT intervention for 12-13-year-old children with externalizing behavioural difficulties. Twelve pupils were…