This article discusses assessment strategies for accurately pinpointing the social and communicative functions of challenging behavior and presents an array of proactive interventions to decrease escape-motivated challenging behavior and to decrease access-motivated challenging behavior. Factors influencing the selection of one intervention…

A review of the use of psychotropic medications for people with developmental disabilities is presented. Results suggest that prescribing drugs based on topographical features of the problem behavior, without considering the function the behavior serves for the individual, contributes to variability in clinical response. Functional analysis of a…

In this Netherlands study, 41 deaf boys (ages 6 to 11) were compared to hearing children using the Child Behavior Checklist. The deaf boys appeared to have more internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems but were no more often disturbed than their hearing counterparts. Younger deaf boys showed more behavioral problems than older deaf…

This paper reviews the growing body of research on relationships among language disorders and behavioral/emotional disorders, focusing on three populations of children: (1) children identified as having language impairments; (3) children with emotional/behavioral disorders; and (3) children who are withdrawn. Co-occurrence of language and…

This article presents a rationale for using students with emotional/behavioral disorders as behavior change agents for peers. Guidelines address use of peer confrontation strategies; selection, training, and evaluation of peer modifiers; and issues (such as ethical aspects of peer intervention). (DB)

The article addresses special costs of strategies involved in maintaining students with behavior disorders in least restrictive environments including regular classrooms. Considered are factors influencing teacher choice of interventions, assumptions about classroom management, the role of the teacher, and intervention strategies and their…

Behavior disorders of children are conceptualized in terms of resistance to intervention; children are considered to have a behavior disorder if their behavioral excesses or deficits or situationally inappropriate behaviors persist at unacceptable levels after school-based interventions. The factors that contribute to resistance to intervention…

An evaluation was conducted to determine the potential usefulness of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) with 97 children aged 7-17 years living in residential mental health facilities. Comparison with other measures of behavioral functioning suggests the utility of the CBCL for evaluating children in residential placement settings. (SLD)

This replication study found that only 16 of 55 raters agreed on the category of reinforcement maintaining a disabled individual's self-injurious behavior after using the Motivation Assessment Scale. Additionally, only 15 percent of the correlation coefficients obtained were above 80 percent, and none of the reliability scores was above 80…

This paper examines several major problems confronting special education for students with emotional and behavioral disorders; identifies successful practices and programs; explores factors that contribute to continuation of inadequate practices; and presents recommendations for improving educational practice, policy, research, and professional…

Examined diagnostic efficiency of symptoms for experimentally diagnosed oppositional defiant disorder (OD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 102 elementary-age boys. Findings from teacher ratings revealed that, on average, ADHD symptoms were as useful as OD symptoms as exclusion criteria for OD, whereas OD symptoms were nearly…

This paper examines the increased risk for substance abuse faced by students with emotional disturbances, behavior disorders, and learning disabilities. The paper discusses approaches to substance abuse prevention in regular education, application of such programs for special populations, and suggestions for expanding programs to address specific…

A man with mental retardation, in detention for five years because of sex offenses with preadolescent boys, was not only diagnosed as having Klinefelter syndrome when a social worker read suspected the possibility and arranged for a chromosome test. The importance of a complete medical work-up is emphasized in such cases. (JDD)

The elementary version of the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders measure was modified for use with an urban preschool Head Start population (n=90). A preschool adaptation of this measure could allow significantly earlier identification of children with potential severe behavior disorders. Approximately 5% of the children were identified…

The article suggests 12 mindsets to decrease stress in teachers of students with behavior disorders and to build a functional philosophy of education. Adoption of positive mindsets are seen to enhance instruction and facilitate positive feelings of hope, self-efficacy, and progress. Sample mindsets include flexible thinking, maintaining academic…