Six papers consider various aspects of the education and treatment of emotionally disturbed children. B.S. Parsonson examines the rationale and efficacy of the application of learning theory principles to the modification of deviant behavior. The need for family therapy is discussed by J.E. Ritchie, who focuses upon the environmental causes and social context of emotional disturbance. The family is seen as a possible context for distorted communications maintained as a pathological homeostasis. Therapeutic qualities of group counseling are described by D.R. Mitchell in behavioral terms (reinforcement, modeling, desensitization) while the group is seen as a social microcosm with multiple relationships. L.G. Rhodes suggests that disturbed children are possible not best served by adjustment classes, in the light of efficacy studies and study of the effects of disability labels on teacher expectancies. Institutional care of socially maladjusted children is examined by B.C. Atwool, while Muriel Blackburn focuses on the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of autism. (KW)