Objective: This report provides descriptive longitudinal findings over three waves of a study designed to assess the development of antisocial behaviors in young and early adolescent Puerto Rican children at two sites. Method: Through the use of standard assessment measures, representative samples of Puerto Rican children of both genders 5 to 13…

Background: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) affect a significant number of children in this country. This article addresses diagnostic issues related to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other alcohol-related disabilities, discusses associated features and behaviors of FASD, and introduces interventions to support children with FASD in…

Child health and well-being are intrinsically important and also contribute to a healthy, productive adolescence and adulthood. Parents can play an important role in helping their children acquire or strengthen the behaviors, skills, attitudes, and motivation that promote physical and mental health and overall well-being in childhood, adolescence…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

The School-Based Mental Health Program's goals are to identify at-risk children, reduce ineffective functioning of at-risk children, provide social service interventions, increase effective parenting skills, help families access community resources, and support mental health education. The program was designed to develop a comprehensive,…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

This issue paper on violence in public schools provides an overview of the problem and a joint statement by the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) and the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders (CCBD). These two organizations believe that the majority of the violent, aggressive, or destructive students in U.S. schools are…

This book presents a behavioral program to teach adolescents basic self-management skills; two chapters provide the theoretical basis for the program and four chapters supply sample lesson plans. The first chapter is an introduction to behavioral self-management. It proposes a behavior change model with four major components: assessment,…

This guide focuses on identification and evaluation of students with behavior problems, emphasizing that identification of behavior problems is influenced by social values. The first chapter discusses the necessity for developing a definition of behavior problems from the educator's perspective, and outlines prevalence rates for behavior problems…

Papers in this volume explore indicators of children's well-being in the following areas: cross-cutting issues; population, family, and neighborhood; and social development and problem behaviors. The first section includes: (1) "Potential and Problems in Developing Indicators on Child Well-Being from Administrative Data" (Robert M.…

This practicum was designed to give parents of preschool children with autism an understanding of the disorder and appropriate skills to manage their children's challenging behaviors. A curriculum-based training series involving weekly 2-hour sessions was implemented during a 12-week period for 25 participants. Goals included increasing the…

The relationship between scores on Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) scores and subtest scores and IQs from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) was studied for 28 children aged 6 to 11 years. Subjects had been referred to a university assessment center because they were believed to have exceptional learning…

Written for parents, this book discusses four steps for dealing with children's difficult behavior. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, "The Building Blocks," discusses baseline perspectives parents need to establish in order to effectively deal with difficult behavior. Topics covered include: (1) parents' dual roles as caregivers and…

This paper describes a program implemented at the James Madison University (Virginia), Department of Special Education, to train student teachers to manage aggressive and violent behavior. Training in the Alternatives for Handling Aggressive and Violent Behavior (A-HAV-B) Approach involves a three-credit behavior management course, certification…

This final report describes a 3-year federally funded project designed to conduct an analysis of the factors that contribute to the performance of high intensity problem behaviors by students with severe disabilities. The project utilized a series of five integrated studies, which involved students with severe intellectual disabilities and the…