In recent years, children and adolescents have spent more time sitting and engaging in less physical activity than recommended by health authorities. Despite widespread efforts to promote physical activity through school-based programs, the impact of specific intervention programs often remains untested. Therefore, in this pilot study, the effects…

This pilot study examined the effects of the Interactive Book Reading at Home (IBR; Wasik, 2009) parent training program on the emergent literacy skills of preschool children and parent beliefs about reading. A quasi-experimental, pretest and posttest design was utilized. Twenty parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to a control or treatment…

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 =…

Despite the potential benefits that computer approaches could provide for children with cognitive disabilities, research and implementation of emerging approaches to learning supported by computing technology has not received adequate attention. We conducted a pilot study to assess the effectiveness of a computer-assisted learning tool, named…

This is a pilot study of the effectiveness of Project ImPACT, a parent-mediated intervention for ASD delivered in a community program. The primary aim was to compare child and parent outcomes between the intervention group and a community comparison for 30 young children with ASD at baseline and 12 weeks. The secondary aim was to identify parent…

Research Findings: The goal of this study was to determine the efficacy of an educational intervention program to improve emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and social competence in 2-year-old Spanish children. This study makes two original contributions because there are no validated education programs for such young children and because it…

Commentaries regarding appropriate methods for researching professional development have been a frequent topic in recent issues of "Educational Researcher" as well as other venues. In this article, the authors extend this discussion by observing that randomized trials of specific professional development programs have not enhanced our…

Despite the evidence pointing to its detrimental child outcomes, physical punishment remains one of the most commonly used techniques to discipline children in many Nigerian homes. Research has revealed that a majority of Nigerian parents are not aware of the negative consequences. They are also not aware of nonaversive ways to discipline…

Project GOAL is a systematic dropout prevention model including individual and peer-mediated group interventions for at-risk students. This article provides an overview of the Project GOAL model and describes a 2-year experimental pilot study of Project GOAL with a cohort of eighth-and ninth-grade students in a low-income school district in the…

Peer assisted learning (PAL) is one method of teaching which involves peers, or people from similar social groups, in reciprocal learning where one peer educates another and in return learns through the teaching experience. There have been many reported benefits of PAL programs. PAL has a long history of use in healthcare education; however, for…

Children from low-income backgrounds demonstrate poorer school readiness skills than their higher-income peers. The Kids In Transition to School (KITS) Program was developed to increase early literacy, social, and self-regulatory skills among children with inadequate school readiness. In the present study, 39 families participated in a pilot…

Substance use among youth is a significant health concern in the rural United States, particularly among at-risk students. While evidence-based programs are available, literature suggests that an underdeveloped rural health prevention workforce often limits the adoption of such programs. Additionally, population-size restrictions of national…

In spring 2010, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) began planning a pilot of an application for the Apple iPad, "HMH Fuse: Algebra 1," which was then in development. The application was to be piloted in four California school districts during the 2010-2011 school year. HMH contracted with Empirical Education Inc. to conduct a one-year…

Research indicates that preschool children need to learn pre-math skills to build a foundation for primary- and secondary-level mathematics. This paper presents the results from the early stages of a pilot mathematics program implemented in Cordillera, Paraguay. In a context of significant gaps in teacher preparation and pedagogy, the program uses…

This pilot study investigated the impact of group activity play therapy (GAPT) on displaced orphans aged 10 to 12 years living in a large children's village in Uganda. Teachers and housemothers identified 60 preadolescents exhibiting clinical levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The participants' ethnicity was African and…