People with intellectual disabilities (ID) often engage in problem behaviors, such as verbal or physical aggression, property destruction, or self-injury. These behaviors become a challenge for the families and for professionals. Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is a method used to identify variables that influence or maintain challenging…

Peer victimization can challenge mental health, yet limited research has considered contingent self-worth as a moderator of that relation. This study examined the relation of peer victimization to major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and social phobia during adolescence, and contingent self-worth as a hypothesized moderator of…

The purpose of this study was to examine, through in-class observations, the messages preschool teachers use against children's undesirable behaviors, in order to warn the children and remove negative behaviors. The study group consisted of six preschool teachers. The messages used by preschool teachers against undesirable behaviors of children…

Studies have shown that children with ASD have increased severity and incidence of pain symptoms compared to typically developing children and children with other disorders. Pain has also been shown to act as a setting event for problem behavior. Further, problem behavior is one of the biggest impediments to quality of life for families and highly…

Positive, healthy and happy families are the cornerstone of any healthy community. Parenting programs which address multiple aspects of family functioning are potentially the most effective means of creating positive family environments. However, the various constituents who "consume" parenting support and intervention often are not…

Punitive discipline strategies based on removal of students from the classroom may prevent the creation of effective and safe learning environments. Research indicates that punishment has traditionally been viewed as preventative, serving as a means of controlling unacceptable behavior. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to…

Children adopted from institutions at older ages are at increased risk of persistent attention problems, lower cognition, and academic difficulties. This study examined cognitive and behavior problems as mediators of the association between early psychosocial deprivation and academic functioning. Participants were 8-17-year-old children adopted…

Counseling faculty serve as gatekeepers to protect the public from trainees who demonstrate significant deficiencies in professional functioning. Two issues that have not been thoroughly examined are how different cultural values may intersect with the assessment of appropriate professional competencies and whether the multicultural environment of…

Class-wide interventions such as the Mystery Motivator are an easy and effective way to remediate problematic behavior in the classroom and increase the level of classroom management. Multiple procedural variations to the Mystery Motivator intervention have successfully changed student behavior, but a systematic comparison of two procedural…

This study examines the factor structure, reliability and validity of a novel school-based screening instrument for academic and disruptive behavior problems commonly experienced by children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants included 39 classroom teachers from two public school districts in the…

As schools develop inclusive practices to maximize student placement in their least restrictive environment (Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 2004), students with problem behavior are increasingly educated in general education settings. As a result, general and special education teachers must be prepared to work with students with…

In an attempt to address risk factors associated with extensive nonfamilial child care, we implemented the preschool life skills (PLS) program (Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) in two community-based Head Start classrooms. A multiple baseline design across classrooms, repeated across skills, showed that the program resulted in a 5-fold…

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have co-occurring feeding problems. However, there is limited knowledge about how these feeding habits are related to other behavioral characteristics ubiquitous in ASD. In a relatively large sample of 256 children with ASD, ages 2-11, we examined the relationships between feeding and mealtime…

In addition to social and communicative deficits, many studies have reported motor deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study investigated the macro and microstructural properties of the corpus callosum (CC) of 18 children with ASD and 12 typically developing controls using diffusion tensor imaging tractography. We aimed to explore…

Self-sufficiency is central to child and family well-being. This report focuses on predictors of adaptive daily living skills (DLS) development in young children with ASD and whether DLS gains predict decreases in parenting stress. Participants were 162 toddlers with ASD and their parents, assessed at 3 annual timepoints. Hierarchical Linear…