Dissociative symptoms including depersonalization and derealization are commonly experienced by individuals suffering from panic disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few studies have been published investigating the specific treatment of these symptoms in individuals diagnosed with panic disorder or PTSD, despite evidence that the…

Some students who have developmental disabilities avoid settings and activities that can improve their learning and quality of life. This two-phase study concerned an adolescent boy with autism who avoided the gross-motor exercise room, gymnasium, and music room at his school; he demonstrated distress, agitation, and problem behaviors when…

The literature pertaining to training staff, parents, and peers to implement interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities was reviewed for training procedures that incorporated strategies to promote generalization. The search engines for the "Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis" and Pubmed[C] were used to find relevant studies.…

Psychosocial interventions for atypical depression (AD) have been relatively ignored in the clinical research literature, despite evidence that the atypical subtype of major depression is marked by earlier age of onset, longer duration of mood episode, greater symptom severity, and poorer response to pharmacologic treatment. Given the symptom…

Home visiting is a child abuse prevention strategy that seeks to optimize child development by providing mothers with support, training, and parenting information. Research has consistently found high rates of depression in mothers participating in home visiting programs and low levels of obtaining mental health treatment in the community.…

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is commonly used to implement applied behavior analysis treatment for children with autism. The authors investigated a revised self-instructional manual for teaching university students to implement a 21-component DTT procedure to teach three tasks to confederates role-playing children with autism. Also, as a…

Two men with profound developmental disabilities used a mouth-wiping response instrumental to reduce drooling via a micro-switch-based program (i.e., a program in which the response was automatically monitored and followed by positive stimulation). The wiping response was performed via a napkin or a handkerchief placed inside a belt pocket. The…

Exposure to premonitory sensations and response prevention of tics (ER) has been shown to be a promising new treatment for Tourette's syndrome (TS). The present study tested the hypothesis that habituation to unpleasant premonitory sensations associated with the tic is an underlying mechanism of change in ER. Patients rated the severity of…

Social skills are defining aspects of intellectual disability (ID). Additionally, their presence or absence can be a major impediment to independent living, and they correlate with other problems in the ID population, such as comorbid psychopathology. To date, little has been done to develop scales to measure these problems, particularly for…

Conditional rates of problem behavior for weeks that followed medication decreases and no medication changes were compared for 12 individuals who exhibited severe problem behavior (e.g., self-injury, aggression). The results indicate that conditional rates of problem behavior were higher following medication decreases than following no changes in…

Identifies six empirically and socially validated conversational behaviors that can serve as targets of interventions designed to increase social interaction among high school students with and without disabilities. Findings indicate that little social interaction occurs among these high school students in the absence of programming or support.…

Assessment results indicated that pica exhibited by two boys with developmental disabilities was not associated with environmental contingencies. Consistent with previous research, an oral stimulation function was hypothesized. A related intervention that taught participants to exchange inedible items for edibles was developed. Findings showed…

Research shows that after training in the philosophy and practice of mindfulness, parents can mindfully attend to the challenging behaviors of their children with autism. Parents also report an increased satisfaction with their parenting skills and social interactions with their children. These findings were replicated and extended with four…

Many children with mental retardation and developmental disabilities suffer from the consequences of chronic drooling. Behavioral treatment for drooling should be considered before other, more intrusive treatments such as medication and surgery are implemented. However, empirical studies on behavioral procedures are scarce. This article reviews 19…

There is growing evidence of an association between physical illness and problem behavior in children with developmental disabilities. Such behavior can compromise school performance. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to evaluate, using a group design, the effectiveness of medical intervention alone (N = 11) versus behavioral plus…