This pilot study examined working conditions reported by special education teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) to identify factors common to teachers likely to leave their positions within the next 2 years and factors common to those likely to stay. Survey responses from an international sample of 776 teachers and…

Depression at the end of life is a common mental health issue with serious implications for quality of life and decision making. This study investigated the reliability and validity of one of the most frequently used measures of depression, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) in 422 patients with terminal cancer admitted to a palliative…

Students with learning and behavioral disorders often lack the requisite academic skills and behavioral self-control to remain engaged during passive seatwork activities. Because independent seatwork composes a large portion of the instructional time in general education classrooms and teachers expect students to demonstrate self-control in these…

A growing body of evidence indicates that for some children, early incidences of challenging behaviors are predictors of later difficulties. These incidences of challenging behaviors may predict mental health issues, social adjustment issues and/or increased challenging behaviors that will impede school success and impact transition to adult life…

This study compares 6-11-year-old, clinically referred boys and girls diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, either with (ODD + CD, n = 40) or without Conduct Disorder (ODD only; n = 136), to a matched sample of healthy control children (HC; n = 69). Multiple informants completed intake diagnostic interviews and self-reports to evaluate…

This paper reviews literature and clinical experiences on the neurobiological and psychological aspects of sleep in children with mental retardation. The lack of a universal, operational definition of sleep disorders is noted, and a study is cited in which 61% of a group of 20 children (ages 2-13) with developmental disabilities were found to have…

Nebraska administrators responded to a survey to identify needs in inservice training of teachers of behaviorally impaired students. A shortened version of the Professional Development Needs Survey was completed by 166 administrators (principals and special education directors) responsible for supervising programs in behavior impairment. When…

Clinical research in the area of severe psychiatric disorders constituted the major focus for the discipline of applied behavior analysis during the early 1960s. Recently, however, there appears to be a notable lack of a behavioral focus within many inpatient psychiatric settings and a relative dearth of published behavioral treatment studies with…

The paper reviews research on effects of metal pollutants on behavioral disorders in children. Methodological programs of studies conducted in the 1970's are described. Research since 1980 is then addressed in terms of general population studies and studies of behaviorally disordered populations. Findings of research on the latter subject group…

The paper reviews the developmental perspective in interventions with behaviorally disordered youth and considers developmentally based models (such as the engineered classroom, the conceptual level model, and the developmental task instructional system). The Intervention by Prescription (IBP) model, an integrated problem solving system, is…

Teaching social routines to behavior-disordered children is addressed, with an emphasis on determining and maintaining the critical effect of a behavior and on providing contextual instruction. Assessment of behavioral problems in functional terms is discussed and procedures for assessing social functions and social skills are analyzed. The…

This report discusses definitional issues of behavior disorders and serious emotional disturbances and describes findings of a mail survey completed by administrators in 23 local and intermediate special education planning units and agencies in 11 states. Survey responses are summarized in tables. These present data on occurrence and agreement for…

Several experiments were carried out to determine whether learning disabled (LD) and behaviorally disordered (BD) students exhibit deficiencies in appropriate test-taking strategies and, if so, whether these strategies could be successfully trained. Preliminary investigations indicated that mildly handicapped students do exhibit deficiencies in…

Of three groups of adolescent boys (delinquent, disruptive, and controls), the delinquent group (n=20) showed a significantly greater tendency to operate in the paratelic motivational state (spontaneous, present-oriented behavior focusing only on immediately attainable goals) rather than in the telic motivational state (goal directed, purposeful,…

A six-year-old with severe conduct disorders and learning delays increased task accuracy and on-task performance and decreased his disruptions after a reinforcement contingency was instituted. Eventually the child assumed responsibility for grading all tasks independently, maintaining high task accuracy. (CL)