As advocates for children and youth with exceptionalities, the members of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) are committed to ensuring a safe and positive climate in school and community settings. This requires elimination of any inherent biases school leaders, teachers, and other school personnel may hold and investing in policies and…

Brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) is an evidence-based intervention for diagnosing and correcting patterns of family interactions that are linked to distressing experiences and symptoms in children ages 6-18. This clinical guide shows practitioners how to transform family interactions from conflictive to collaborative, from habitual to…

Interventions for promoting physical activity designed specifically for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are lacking, which is problematic given the low rates of physical activity among this population. This study used a stakeholder-engaged approach to adapt the Wellness Enhancing Physical Activity for Young Children (WE PLAY)…

We evaluate an intervention designed to increase teachers' awareness of social isolation by providing them with their own students' social network and information on developmental risks associated with social exclusion. Using friendship data and incentive-compatible measures of antisocial and prosocial behavior, we find that the intervention…

Background: Children within historically disadvantaged non-Western South African communities are considered as particularly vulnerable to the development of anxiety problems. Although the need for accessible mental health interventions is evident, this need has remained unmet in a country with extreme socio-economic disparities and a lack of…

There are conflicting theories about the best ways to support behaviour in schools. This paper captures the perspectives of UK primary school staff regarding the advantages and disadvantages of different behaviour support approaches, in addition to exploring the facilitators and barriers to adopting relational-based approaches. Virtual…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to collect in-depth information from school psychologists regarding their perceptions toward expressive therapies and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as interventions when working with students who are exposed to trauma. Individual Zoom interviews were conducted with seven practicing school psychologists who…

An interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA; Hanley et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 47:16-36, 2014) and related skill-based treatment process can result in socially valid outcomes for clients exhibiting severe challenging behavior when implemented by professionals and then transferred to parents (e.g., Santiago et al. in J Autism Dev…

Teaching elementary students how to read is undeniably crucial, yet a substantial number of children encounter difficulties despite early interventions (NCES, 2022). Cross-age tutoring, a pedagogical approach that pairs older students with younger peers, emerges as a cost-effective solution that brings academic and social benefits to both the…

Non-compliance is a challenge for practitioners serving children with and without disabilities. Many interventions have been developed to increase compliance. High-probability request sequences (HPRS), an antecedent-based intervention that is based on behavioral momentum theory, is one way to increase compliant behavior. HPRS includes the…

Professional development for educators is often not evidence-based and insufficient to improve classroom management skills. Video-analysis has been shown to be effective at improving pedagogy of classroom teachers. We expanded on prior literature by using an early childhood general education teacher. A multiple baseline design across behaviors was…

This study examined the effects of using behavioral skills training (BST) to teach peer models to engage students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities in interactive play. Two separate multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to determine the effectiveness of BST on the peer models' implementation of the procedural…

Background: Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability evidence significant anxiety. This study aimed to adapt a group cognitive behaviour therapies (CBT) programme designed for youth with ASD and anxiety to meet the cognitive, communication, and behavioural needs of adolescents with intellectual disability, and…

Deficits in social skills are common in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and there is an urgent need for effective social skills interventions, especially for improving interactions with typically developing peers. This study examined the effects of a naturalistic behavioral social skills intervention in improving social initiations…

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who engage in stereotypy may also emit a prior, temporally contiguous, high-risk response to access stereotypic behaviors. For example, the participant in this study who was diagnosed with ASD engaged in a chained response that included elopement, often in unsafe locations, to access light…