Presented is a detailed case study of an 8-year-old socially withdrawn girl with elective mutism. Reviewed are early developmental data, and described are the therapeutic processes involved in her treatment in a psychiatric facility, including speech therapy and individual play sessions. Theoretical considerations on the origin of her mutism are…

This study examined empirical research on shyness, inhibition, and social withdrawal published in "Child Development,""Developmental Psychology," and "Development and Psychopathology" between 1990 and 1996, focusing on: (1) conceptual definitions; (2) operational definitions; (3) agreement between conceptual and…

A six year old female tutor was trained to facilitate social conversation between two male age mates (selected for their infrequent level of social interactions) during daily play sessions. Tutoring of peer initiations occurred in a small room adjacent to the main classroom. The peers were tutored to request information (RI) and request behavior…

Rational Emotive Education (REE), derived from Rational Emotive Therapy (RET), is a humanistic approach for helping children cope more objectively and effectively with the stress of modern living and personal problems. To investigate the efficacy of teaching REE, 38 acting-out and 42 socially withdrawn adolescents were randomly assigned to one of…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether temperament differences exist between infants who completed a visual perceptual/cognitive experiment and those who did not. A total of 14 Caucasian infants ranging in age from 5-15 months participated in the study. The subjects were placed in one of two groups (completers vs. noncompleters)…

The use of a forced-contact procedure to increase the rate of interaction between a socially withdrawn 3 1/2-year-old boy and his peers is described in this paper. A play group, consisting of four 3- to 5-year-old children, met three times a week for approximately 45 minutes in the isolate child's home. Each session consisted of a structured…

Play therapy has been employed by therapists to alleviate children's emotional stress. Most research dealing with this type of intervention has been in the form of case studies, focusing on therapy outcome rather than on the therapeutic process. The process of one child in individual play therapy was analyzed through the use of time-series…

Intervention studies in which peer social initiations were used to increase the social and play skills of withdrawn preschool and school aged children are reviewed. A discussion follows of such practical application issues as selection of peer trainers, training of peer trainers, arrangement of the setting for peer intervention, and teacher…

Studies of employee tardiness, absence, and turnover generally adhere to one of five models: generalized withdrawal, which proposes positive intercorrelations among withdrawal behaviors; independent forms, which hypothesizes non-significant correlations among withdrawal behaviors; progression of withdrawal, which suggests that individuals engage…

An exception to most observational studies examining sex differences is Ladd's (1983) study of popular, average, and rejected children, which reported sex differences within as well as across groups. Like Ladd's research, the present study looks at sex differences within and across subsamples of boys and girls, comparing the playground behavior of…

The evaluation of a behavioral screening procedure for the detection of both conduct disordered and withdrawn children was implemented in two phases among children enrolled in a rural Head Start program. The first phase focused on preliminary identification, through teacher rankings and classroom observation, of a population of the most withdrawn…

The effectiveness of a therapeutic motor development program in increasing the social adjustment and peer acceptance of seven socially isolated fifth grade children was investigated using a single subject experimental design. The program was based on the games analysis model which allows movement games to be designed for individual motoric,…

The study involving 60 children (grades 2 to 8) tested the hypothesis that both aggressive and withdrawn children would benefit from participating in brief daily learning sessions with peers having similar behavioral problems. Ss were divided into three groups: tutors, tutees, and controls. Tutors learned how to correct and reinforce their…

Kinetic-Family-Drawings were obtained from 50 kindergarten or first grade children with delayed perceptual and/or motor development and 50 controls to investigate the effectiveness of this instrument as a measure of socio-emotional dimensions of high risk low achievers. Each child was asked to draw each member of his family (including himself)…

Research has shown that too little stress or stimulation can increase health risks. To determine the effectiveness of mild stimulation on the depression levels and feelings of self-worth of the elderly, 24 withdrawn nursing home residents participated in a non-judgemental 6-month art expression group. Half the group were assigned to a control…