The origin and developmental course of stereotypic and self-injurious behaviour among individuals with developmental disabilities such as intellectual disability (ID) or pervasive development disorders such as autism is not well understood. Twelve studies designed to document the prevalence, nature, or development of stereotypic and/or…

The author urges the field of education for children with emotional or behavioral disorders to address three critical areas: (1) developmental psychopathology (to improve early identification and prevention); (2) psychiatric comorbidity (e.g., disruptive disorders present with depression or anxiety disorder); and (3) psychopharmacology (especially…

Background: It has been repeatedly found that performance of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is more impaired when a long inter-stimulus interval (ISI) is used than when a short ISI is used. According to the cognitive-energetic model, this may reflect difficulty in remaining in an optimal motor activation state…

Background: Several studies showed a different symptom structure underlying the spectrum of autistic-like disorders from the behaviour triad as mentioned in the DSM-IV. In the present study, a hypothesised symptom model for autism was constructed, based on earlier explorative findings, and was put to a confirmatory test. Method: Items from the…

It is well known that laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, P.L.101-476) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, P.L. 101-336) were established to ensure equity in educating students with special needs. But, because schools are a reflection of their communities, prejudices of some teachers, administrators, and…

Eight males and four females with an Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) diagnosis of autism (mean age of 16.3 years) and severe intellectual disability (IQ < 40) were individually matched to controls on the basis of chronological age, gender, and nonverbal IQ. The dependent measure was the Diagnostic Assessment for the Severely…

There is currently controversy over the validity and applicability of function behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures with students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD). A set of FBA procedures, including teacher and student interviews and direct classroom observations, were carried out with eight students with disabilities (7 classified…

Expanding on Reese "et al." [2003], functional behavioral assessment interviews [O'Neill "et al.", 1997] concerning disruptive behavior were conducted with parents of 23 children with autism (6 females, 17 males, chronological ages [CA] 24-60 months) and 23 controls without autism pair-matched for CA, developmental age and sex. All children…

Children with diagnosed psychopathologies may experience aggravation of those illnesses with their exposure to media violence. Children with the most common, often undiagnosed, form of psychopathology--Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBDs)--manifested changes in heart rate, heart vagal heart tone and other psychophysiological reactions to media…

Objective: This study examined the relationship between ego development and psychological defenses to aggressive behavior in a group of psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents. Method: Subjects were 245 adolescents ages 12-16, who were assessed for aggressive behaviors, assaultive incidents, ego development and defenses. Results: Aggressive…

Normal and psychopathological patterns of behavior symptoms in preschool children were described by a classification approach using cluster analysis. The behavior of 406 children, average age 4 years 9 months, from the general population was evaluated at home visits. Seven clusters were identified based on empirically defined dimensions:…

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is one of the empirically supported psychosocial treatments for ADHD. Over many years and in many studies, BPT has been documented to improve both child ADHD behavior and maladaptive parenting behavior. In some studies, BPT has also been found to result in benefits in additional domains, such as parenting stress…

This study assessed the impact of a class-wide time-out/re-directing strategy on (a) the frequency of teacher-assigned time-outs and (b) the time students spent in disciplinary sanctions. Twelve students with emotional/behavioral disorders, enrolled in a self-contained elementary classroom were taught an alternative time-out strategy (Active…

This study compared attributions for child behavior among mothers of 38 nonproblem boys, 26 boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 25 boys with ADHD and oppositional defiant (OD) behavior. Boys ranged from 7 to 10 years of age. To capture different aspects of mothers' attributions, 2 assessment methods were employed: (a)…

Many college and university teacher education units in the USA (94% or 47 states) now offer generic special education teacher preservice programs. However, training in disability categories, specifically emotional and behavioral disorders, is not intensive or extensive. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify the effects of the…