Many classrooms experience minor disruptions that tend to diminish teaching opportunities for educators. Teachers often impose punitive discipline approaches and consequences in response to classroom disruptions. Using punitive discipline approaches and consequences do not teach students how to change negative behaviors to positive behaviors. The…

A common recommendation for implementing time-out procedures is to include a release contingency such that the individual is not allowed to leave time-out until no problem behavior has occurred for a specific amount of time (e.g, 30 s). We compared a fixed duration time-out procedure to a release contingency time-out procedure with 4 young…

Given the effectiveness of putative escape extinction as treatment for feeding problems, it is surprising that little is known about the effects of escape as reinforcement for appropriate eating during treatment. In the current investigation, we examined the effectiveness of escape as reinforcement for mouth clean (a product measure of…

We treated the liquid refusal of a 15-month-old girl using 2 antecedent manipulations: flipped spoon and chin prompt. Use of the chin prompt in the absence of the flipped spoon failed to produce increases in mouth clean (a product measure of swallowing). By contrast, modest increases in mouth clean resulted from the implementation of the flipped…

Evidence from recent meta-analytic and narrative review suggests that early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) may improve life chances of preschool children with autism. Unfortunately, there are few data indicating whether early gains are maintained after intervention ceases. The purpose of the present study was to establish the 2-year…

In a randomized trial for children with social phobia (SP), Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children (SET-C; a treatment consisting of exposure and social skills training) and fluoxetine were more effective than pill placebo in reducing social distress and behavioral avoidance, but only SET-C demonstrated significantly improved overall social…

Objective: In a long-term follow-up of a randomized controlled trial (Compas et al., 2009) to examine the effects at 18- and 24-month follow-ups of a family group cognitive-behavioral (FGCB) preventive intervention for mental health outcomes for children and parents from families (N = 111) of parents with a history of major depressive disorder…

Depression during adolescence represents a significant public health concern. It is estimated that up to 20% of adolescents experience an episode of depression that interferes with academic and social functioning and is associated with an increased risk for self-harm. Although significant progress has been made in the last decade in treating…

The study examined whether psychosocial intervention for children diagnosed with a disruptive behavior disorder (DBD; n = 84) changed concentrations of cortisol and testosterone across a 3-year follow-up when compared to a matched, nonclinical, healthy comparison (HC; n = 69) group. Boys and girls (6-11 years) with a DBD were randomly assigned to…

Children in foster care face a number of challenges that threaten their ability to form attachment relationships with foster parents and to regulate their behavior and biology. The authors describe the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up (ABC) intervention, an evidence-based intervention aimed at helping foster children develop trusting…

One in 10 individuals with intellectual disability (ID) exhibits behaviors that represent a significant challenge to the people who support them. Parents and staff (such as direct support professionals) often are challenged in trying to find a solution to overcome or reduce these behaviors. A form of additional professional support (i.e., external…

At the national level there has been a call for more therapeutic interventions and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been identified as one approach that can be used. The training of educational psychologists (EPs) has been extended to three years and this provides an opportunity to increase the depth of knowledge of particular therapeutic…

Youth traumatized by natural disasters report high levels of posttraumatic stress such as symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, and depression. Research suggests that cognitive behavioral therapies are promising interventions for symptom reduction; however, few cognitive behavioral treatments have been systematically…

Long-lasting memories of adverse experiences are essential for individuals' survival but are also involved, in the form of recurrent recollections of the traumatic experience, in the aetiology of anxiety diseases (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]). Extinction-based erasure of fear memories has long been pursued as a behavioral way to…

When the author became principal at South Pittsburg High School in the rural southeast corner of Tennessee, he noticed that the school had a serious problem with students arriving late to school in the morning and late to classes during the school day. When this issue was discussed, it was decided that there was a need to initiate a Saturday…