American social and educational interventions are often designed for children and youth who have risk factors or destructive behaviors. Effective strategies can be designed to assist youth to grow up to be happy, healthy, productive adults before they show negative characteristics. Restorative Practices, an emerging interdisciplinary field, offers…

There are major differences in perspective between the traditional medical model of treatment for troubled children and more recent strength-based approaches. This is particularly evident when widespread use of psychoactive drugs becomes a substitute for interpersonal therapeutic interventions. Drugs and relationships both impact the brain, but in…

A long-established agency for troubled children was following a philosophy based on behavioral control and treatment of pathology. As staff examined their beliefs about the process of change, the climate evolved from enforcing behavior control to empowering youth to develop positive strengths. A charter school was created and new behavior…

An enhanced form of Aggression Replacement Training is being used with children and youth with autism spectrum disorder and particularly those with Asperger's Syndrome who present behavioural challenges. Initial results in a Norwegian centre indicate that, with some modifications and enhancements, the programme is an appropriate strategy for…