Classrooms are increasingly more diverse, and student success can be enhanced through family engagement, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. Too often teachers are stymied by how to engage CLD families of children with disabilities. Common practices of parent involvement are ineffective and fail…

This study examined the viability of a brief, parent-reported strengths and needs assessment as the first step in a multiple-gating approach to proactive positive behavior support for families. The "Positive Family Support--Strengths and Needs Assessment" (PFS-SaNA) was designed to collaboratively engage parents early in the school year…

This Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) guidance report is designed to support senior leaders in primary and secondary schools to make better-informed decisions about their behaviour strategies. It includes a number of practical examples of programmes and approaches that should be helpful in schools and classrooms where behaviour is generally…

While the number of children diagnosed with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) continues to rise, the number of research-based methods to meet the needs of this population lags behind. Social dysfunction is perhaps the most pervasive and debilitating deficit for those diagnosed with HFASD. This article presents a narrative review…

How do schools address safety issues, discipline students, and provide effective instruction? These are questions parents and educators need to answer together. Parents of children whose special needs put them at risk for being bullied worry about the school's ability to protect their vulnerable children. Conversely, parents of children who…

This qualitative interview study investigates the perceived barriers and enablers to implementing and sustaining individualized positive behavior supports (IPBS) by school-based team members across five stakeholder groups. The findings reveal specific factors across five broad themes: (a) school culture, (b) administrative leadership and support,…

This article discusses the characteristics of "positive behavior support," the incorporation of families as collaborators rather than helpers, the ecological validity of positive behavior support, outcomes that stress changes in lifestyle that permit inclusion in community-based activities from which the student was formerly excluded,…

This response to several commentaries on a successful behavior support plan that was used to address the challenging behaviors of a 9-year-old boy with severe disabilities focuses on the importance of multiple perspectives and multiple research methodologies, the benefit and challenge of parent partnerships, and issues related to practice and…

This commentary discusses the successful partnership between the parents and the school in addressing the challenging behaviors of a 9-year-old boy with severe disabilities. Stages of the successful partnership and characteristics of behavior support plans that have good contextual fit are described. (Author/CR)

This commentary discusses the limitations of traditional research and the benefits of participatory action research (PAR) that changes the stance of the researcher from dispassionate observer to that of friend, ally, and colleague of the "subject". The use of PAR in helping researchers, parents, and advocates work together in promoting…

Positive behavior support (PBS) offers schools a structured approach to address children's behavior from the individual level to the schoolwide level. Professionals are encouraged to include all relevant stakeholders, especially families, in actively planning, implementing, and evaluating the supports provided (Carr et al., 2002). However,…

Studies the association between parenting practices and conduct problem behavior in a sample (N=179) of children and adolescents. Results indicate that parents' involvement in their children's activities is most strongly predictive of conduct problems in the adolescent age group, whereas corporal punishment is most strongly associated with conduct…

Objective: This study compared family-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT: the Building Confidence Program) with traditional child-focused CBT with minimal family involvement for children with anxiety disorders. Method: Forty clinically anxious youth (6-13 years old) were randomly assigned to a family- or child-focused cognitive-behavioral…

Data were analyzed from 66 young children with autism served by 25 different early intervention consultants and receiving parent-managed interventions. Parent-managed intensive interventions resulted in progress for 60 children for mental age, adaptive behavior, and language skills. Interventions did not reproduce results from clinic-based…

The purpose of this publication is to identify the essential components of appropriate programming mandated by Alberta Education for students with special education needs, to provide examples of effective practices, to establish a common understanding of the terminology associated with this specialized field, and to clarify the meaning of…