This publication features articles on prevention of school violence and focuses upon promising practices that reflect practical approaches to positive behavioral interventions. Directed at both regular and special education students, these articles feature prosocial skills for improving student responsibility and discipline, effective parenting…

Managing antisocial behavior is a critical issue facing those who work with young children, as the presence of early socialization problems is the single greatest predictor of adolescent and adult antisocial behavior. This booklet highlights the effectiveness of behavior management strategies that introduce and reinforce positive behaviors, rather…

The study examined the efficacy of systematic team placement and individualized educational plans (IEPs) on enhancing the social integration of 200 educable mentally retarded and learning/behaviorally disturbed children into regular elementary classrooms. (Author)

A comparison of 86 learning-disabled children, aged 7-11, and 86 age-matched controls found that subjects were able to generate fewer alternatives for solving social problems, showed less adaptive assertiveness and tolerance for frustration, exhibited more classroom behavior problems, displayed less personal and social competence, and had more…

Regular education teachers who have students with disabilities in their classes may face challenging behaviors that have the potential to interfere with the learning process. The article describes some strategies that regular educators can use to successfully handle disruptive or distracting behaviors, focusing on prevention and problem solving.…

This article discusses social behaviors related to success in school and offers practical suggestions for helping students with social-behavioral deficits to master them. Skills and subskills relating to peer relationships, work habits, and general coping are discussed. A teacher rating scale for assessing these skills is included. (PB)

This review of 27 studies examining social skills interventions (such as modeling, role playing, goal setting, and verbal self-instruction) and their effects on students with behavior problems found a number of interventions to be successful. The interventions yielded changes in self, teacher, and parent perceptions, though peer perceptions were…

Two studies examined effects of combinations of setting events on social interactions of seven preschool children with language delays and social interaction deficits. The optimal combination of events for promoting peer interaction included teacher absence from the activity, a limited number and form of materials, and children paired with a…

Examined relationship between child behavior and peer preference from the person-group similarity and the social-skill models with 2,895 first graders. Found support for both predictive models, with the acceptability aggression and withdrawal varying across classrooms and the effects of inattentive/hyperactive behavior and prosocial behavior…

The study examined the unique relationship between multiple dimensions of classroom behavioral adjustment problems and salient social-emotional competencies for urban Head Start children. These relationships were investigated using a hierarchical model that controlled for the variance in social-emotional outcomes attributed to age, gender, and…

This study investigated both the quality of sibling relationships and the psychological adjustment siblings experienced across two groups: siblings of children who are deaf or hard of hearing compared to siblings of children with no disability. Twenty-four siblings of children with hearing loss and 24 siblings of children without a disability…

In this article, the authors describe 12 practical strategies identified as empirically effective in preventing behavioral escalation in students: (1) Reinforce calm and on-task behaviors; (2) Know the triggers; (3) Pay attention to anything unusual about the student's behavior; (4) Do not escalate along with the student; (5) Offer students…

Teacher warmth and support, say University of Virginia researchers Bridget Hamre and Robert Pianta, have unparalleled power to help children adjust and achieve. Their 2005 study of 910 first-grade students included 5- and 6-year-olds whose mothers had low-level education and children identified with "significant behavior, social, and/or…

This chapter examines how a particular strategy for analyzing evaluation data, intent-to-treat (ITT) analyses, may underestimate the true effects of interventions. Such underestimation of intervention effects can profoundly influence policies for prevention and treatment of children's mental health problems, which can in turn lead to negative…

This study followed 515 4-year-olds from Head Start entry to exit to investigate their social and behavioral skills and the impact of these skills on school readiness outcomes. Results indicated that, on average, social skills improved across the preschool year, while behavior problems remained relatively stable. Social skills and behavior…