This article highlights key features of Multisystemic Therapy (MST), a treatment designed to empower caregivers with the skills and resources needed to address behavioral problems and to teach coping skills to youth. The supervisory, consultation, and program practices that support therapist implementation of MST in community-based settings are…

Three individuals with severe behavior disorders and mental retardation, whose destructive behaviors were being maintained by positive reinforcement, were treated using functional communication training with extinction. The case studies investigated techniques used to increase effectiveness of delayed reinforcement and to teach individuals with…

Discusses using scripted lessons to increase the academic information teachers give to students with emotional or behavior disorders before they ask the students to perform tasks that require the information. The results from a study that successfully used written scripts to decrease undesirable student behaviors are reviewed. (CR)

Examines the impact of ADHD on families' functioning. Reviews recent research indicating that persistence of symptoms into adulthood and high comorbidity with behavior, psychiatric, and mood disorders are major additional stressors for families. Emphasizes that effective management of disorder requires multilevel and multimodal interventions, and…

Students who respond to the ludicrous environments of schooling with behaviors and demeanor that do not fit school criteria frequently are given a medical label and drug treatment. The fact that Ritalin is given to 2.8% of all American children reflects a "treatment philosophy" in which professionals define problems and prescribe…

Argues that, at any give time in history, our conceptions and theories of behavioral disorders reflect the basic social and cultural tenets that prevail. It describes how our contemporary conceptions and theories of behavioral disorders mirror the postmodern themes of difference, particularity, and regularity. (Author/CR)

Highlights a number of recommended best-teaching practices, selectively reviews the research literature on teacher interactions in classrooms for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, provides a possible interpretative framework for the apparent discrepancies between research and practice, and makes recommendations for future research.…

Discusses issues and challenges inherent in early research in the field of intervention and prevention of conduct disorders, including recruiting and working with parents who are stressed by the effects of poverty; designing appropriate interventions for young children; and using outcomes measures that reflect developmental continuities, subject…

Presents a cognitive therapy model developed at a residential treatment facility for adolescents with both child-welfare and mental-health involvement, and failures in previous hospitalizations and placements. Emphasis is on using the child's verbalizations in treatment as a measure of his/her illogical or unrealistic cognitions. Offers a 12-step…

This article identifies ways in which cultural discontinuities naturally occur in the schools for students from culturally diverse backgrounds and ways in which school personnel can bring about more satisfactory adjustments by directly teaching requisite skills. Recommendations include creating positive affirming environments and teaching…

The effects of a presession exposure to attention on responding during subsequent assessment of attention as a reinforcer were evaluated across three behavioral assessments. In each experiment, the children responded differentially within the test condition according to the presence or absence of dense schedule of attention immediately prior to…

A study involving three elementary students with emotional/behavioral disorders in a self-contained special education classroom compared the effects of choice and no choice conditions on academic and social behaviors. Opportunities to make choices during academic situations positively affected the academic and social behaviors of two of the three…

A study examined the types and extent of academic deficiencies of 130 adolescents held in a regional detention facility. Most participants' achievement scores in reading, language, and mathematics were below their grade-level placements, students with experience in special education scored lower than other offenders, and males scored lower than…

A study investigated the situation and characteristics of people with mental retardation reported to exhibit challenging behaviors in two areas of England. Results indicate challenging behaviors were shown by 10-15 percent of people with mental retardation, two-thirds were men/boys, and close to two-thirds were adolescents or young adults.…

This study of 15 children with feeding disorders investigated identification of effective behavioral reinforcers by comparing outcomes and time requirements of two procedures in which presence in a particular area produced access to a preferred stimulus (i.e., zone discrimination). Both procedures were viable reinforcer identification tools, but…