In 2019, the President of the European Commission announced the creation of the European Child Guarantee, an initiative that aimed to combat child poverty by making sure that every child who lives in poverty has access to free healthcare, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition. With "Delivering the EU Child…

Purpose: Social skills difficulties among children on the autism spectrum can impede social, emotional, and academic development, especially with increasing age and social demands. This pilot study examined the efficacy of a 5-week skill-building program for children on the autism spectrum. Although effective social skills programs are available…

Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of child death. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a behavioral injury prevention program for children aged 3-18 years and their caregivers. To accommodate families during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, training was modified to be delivered virtually. Forty-one children aged 3-18 years and 14…

In summer 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, 8 parent-child dyads were recruited to participate in a pilot project to investigate the potential benefit of an at-home adaptation of an Animal-Assisted Intervention (AAI) for literacy. After completing a demographic survey and the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (Cohen et al., 1983), children's reading…

Prior studies have shown the efficacy of computer-based cognitive training programs in improving cognitive and academic functions in children diagnosed with a specific learning disorder (SLD). However, these studies often focused on center-based approaches without considering the involvement of parents or the inclusion of home-based tasks in…

Purpose: Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties in narrative production and comprehension. The present study is a pilot test examining the effects of a storybook-based listening comprehension intervention on the narrative abilities of students with ASD. Method: 16 children with ASD, aged 7-12, participated in 8…

The purpose of this article is to examine the pilot program, STRIKE (Sustaining Technology-and Reading-Infused Kid-Friendly Education) at Night Literacy Camp, a week-long bedtime read-aloud camp held virtually on Facebook and YouTube Live platforms. The online program aims to increase access to culturally relevant, high-quality literature, include…

Background: Limited research has addressed the effects of health literacy interventions in elementary schools. However, school-aged children's health literacy is critical because children make decisions about their health every day. The purpose of the pilot project was to explore the feasibility of integrated health literacy lesson plans for…

Despite the knowledge that quality early childhood development programs, including those that target parental knowledge and behaviors, are essential for ameliorating the negative effects of early-life adversity, robust analyses of their implementation and impact in highly vulnerable settings are scarce. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted…

The present study examines the feasibility and effectiveness of a short-term (five- to ten-session) school-based parenting intervention for children ages five to eleven. The intervention teaches parents to improve child behaviors at home and at school. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires were completed by parents at the beginning and end of the…

Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present learning difficulties and limited performance of social skills, besides lower motor skills performance in comparison with their peers. Owing to these difficulties, most of children with ASD are at risk of social exclusion or a poor inclusion due to their behavior, mainly playing with other…

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 =…

Latino, Spanish-speaking families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face unique barriers in special education advocacy. Although advocacy programs are becoming more common in the United States, none of these programs target Latino families. This is a pilot study to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of an advocacy program for…

Problem-solving skills training is an intervention designed to teach coping skills that has shown to decrease negative affectivity (depressive symptoms, negative mood, and post-traumatic stress symptoms) in mothers of children with cancer. The objective of this study was to see whether mothers of children recently diagnosed with autism spectrum…

The prevailing model of care for psychiatric patients in the emergency room (ER) is evaluation and disposition, with little or no treatment provided. This article describes the results of a pilot study of a family-based crisis intervention (FBCI) for suicidal adolescents and their families in a large, urban pediatric ER. FBCI is an intervention…