This longitudinal study assessed changes in skills for students with emotional disturbance (ED) over a one-year time period in a private special education school and examined variables that predicted positive outcomes for these students. At Time 1, teachers rated 84 students with ED using standardized behavior rating scales to assess problem…

The longitudinal comparison study of the national evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program assesses factors in service delivery systems that may shape the impact of systems of care. We evaluated the extent to which services embodying the principles of a system of care, as measured by…

Background: Functional impairment is a key feature of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) of childhood. Aim: To compare impairment, illness attitudes and coping mechanisms in childhood CFS and in other paediatric disorders. Method: Participants were 28 children and adolescents with CFS, 30 with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 27 with emotional…

The purpose of this review was to report on the effectiveness and focus of academic self-management interventions for children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders. Twenty-two studies published in 20 articles and involving 78 participants met inclusionary criteria. The overall mean effect size (ES) across those studies was 1.80…

Elias, Zins, Graczyk, and Weissberg (2003) have written a concise summary of the daunting challenges and possible solutions to improve outcomes for students with mental health needs. As a special educator, the author wants to focus his comments on the potential benefits of school-wide approaches for students with the greatest psychosocial needs.…

Effects of a student with severe emotional/behavioral disorders (SEBD) graphing her own performance data on rate of correct words read per minute were evaluated using a withdrawal of treatment case study design. The student recorded her daily performance using a desktop computer and standard spreadsheet software that automatically graphed each…

In this article we describe the results of a randomized trial (N = 94) that developed and evaluated a multiple family group psychoeducation intervention (MFGPI) for parents/primary caregivers of children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) enrolled in community-based child and youth intensive case management programs. Through group…

Parents and relative caregivers of children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often report high levels of strain associated with the care of that child. This study compares how parents and other relative caregivers, and different family caregiver groups, experience strain. Overall, we found that Medicaid care-givers (n = 648)…

The authors analyzed student data from the U.S. Department of Education's "Annual Reports to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" to asses patterns and trends in the educational placement of students with emotional or behavioral disorders (E/BD), as well as their means of school exit and the…

Teaching social skills to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) has become an accepted practice. Literally hundreds of social skills training (SST) efficacy studies for students with EBD appear in the literature. As a result, many authors have published both narrative and meta-analytic reviews of the literature. Reviews have…

Deaf students with multiple disabilities have a long history of limited opportunity, including limited access to educational opportunities available to their deaf peers. This article places the individual needs of deaf students with multiple disabilities in the context that guides much of deaf education--the importance of language acquisition.…

Context: There is insufficient literature documenting the mental health experiences and needs of rural communities, and a lack of focus on children in particular. This is of concern given that up to 20% of children and youth suffer from a diagnosable mental health problem. Purpose: This study examines issues of access to mental health care for…

Inclusion of students with disabilities, including children and youth diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disorders, has been a prominent and contentious issue for decades. Yet, in spite of the extraordinary attention given this topic, there has been a general absence of empirically sound research to guide policy and practice. This article…

As prevention and early intervention opportunities for young children at risk of emotional disturbance (ED) increase, questions regarding the effectiveness of these programs for specific subpopulations of children have emerged. To date, few investigators have examined young children entering early school prevention/intervention programs to…

The author of this article talks to Robert Kreider about why helping people with special needs is so important to him and his colleagues. Robert Kreider is the president and chief executive officer of The Devereux Foundation, the nation's largest non-profit provider of behavioral healthcare services to children and adults with emotional,…