This text is designed, through the use of a developmental framework, to support effective work with students with behavior disorders and students who have behavior disorders and additional disabilities. Presentation of developmental theory, case studies and illustrations explain many puzzling aspects of problem behavior and outline appropriate school-based interventions for these behaviors. Specific chapters address: (1) the common needs of all children (safety, belonging, and competence); (2) understanding individual differences, relational capacity, the capacity to organize, and factors affecting a child's capacity to organize; (3) diagnostic categorization, Kohut's Optimal-Frustration Model, and optimal frustration; (4) anxiety, dimensions of anxiety, baseline anxiety, determinants of baseline anxiety, and rate of anxiety escalation; (5) origins of problem behaviors for students diagnosed as Category A students, including acting out, narcissistic injury, identification with the aggressor, and avoidance of intolerable feelings of emptiness; (6) programming for the Category A student; (7) origins of problem behaviors for the Category B students (those who have cognitive impairments); (8) programming for Category B students; (9) origins of problem behavior for Category C students (those who have more severe cognitive impairments); (10) programming for the Category C student; and (11) psychiatric medication and the public school. (Contains 13 references.) (CR)