Archive for the 'Behavior management' Category

Effective child mangement for parents

In a systematic review of the research about parent training, Jennifer Wyatt Kaminski and colleagues of the US Centers for Disease Control identified factors that contribute to the effectiveness of programs that help parents manage the problematic behavior of their children. Of the 18 factors that they examined, only five proved to be important. Parent training programs that taught parents to respond consistently to problems, practice positive interactions, use time out, and required them to practice these skills with their own children led to greater effects on children’s externalizing behavior, but those that emphasized promoting children’s social skills had smaller effects on externalizing behavior.
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New therapy

Here’s a description of a highly touted intervention.

[Method X] is recognized worldwide as a general method to reinforce the body’s protective abilities for people of all ages who suffer from various disorders and pre-illness conditions, i.e. practically healthy people.

[Method X] involves the organized interaction between [therapy agent] and person, with optimal conditions to offer benefits to the person as well as the [therapy agent].

 [Method X] can assist in the following tasks:

- Correction of psychological development for people with nervous system disorders
- Development of cognitive activity for people with psycho-neurological disorders
- Development of children’s speech
- Removal of chronic pain
- Reduction of neurological and vegetative-vascular reactions
- Relief from psychosomatic conditions
- Reduction of unintentional movements, tics and spasms
- Rehabilitation of people, victims of violence or other stressful situations
- Psycho-emotional training for specialists whose work is connected with extremely stressful situations
- Leisure and relaxation for healthy people – children and adults

The main component of [Method X] is the psychological effect from the interaction between [the client] and [the therapy assistant] in an unaccustomed environment and the physical therapy effect from [Y and Z] made by these [therapists].

Would you want to use this therapy for yourself or your child?

I would! But, that’s because I know what the therapy is.

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PDX RTC

RTC at PDX banner

The paper mail included a copy of Focal Point, the periodical from the Research and Training Center (RTC) on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health at Portland (OR, US) State University. As usual, it includes many worthwhile articles. It reminded me that I should reminder readers of EBD Blog about the RTC.

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Autism treatment recommendations

Alert readers will know that I have found fault with the recommendations on about.com about Learning Disabilities, so this post endorsing an article on about.com may come as a surprise. In “How to Choose the Wrong Treatment for Your Child with Autism,” about.com’s Lisa Jo Rudy got a lot right. Ms. Rudy provides an extensive list of don’ts that merit support.
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Consortium to Prevent School Violence launched

Today is the official launch of the Consortium to Prevent School Violence (CPSV). The consortium will provide many resources including fact sheets, research summaries, training resources, and more.

The Consortium to Prevent School Violence (CPSV) seeks to promote the effective implementation of school violence prevention practices that are:

Based in high-quality scientific research

Proven to prevent and reduce school violence

Following the school shootings of Fall 2006, a group of 20 researchers and practitioners in the field of school violence prevention collaborated on the creation of a position statement on the school shootings. In the process, it became apparent that an alliance of researchers and practitioners in school violence prevention to further the common goal of reducing school violence would be highly valuable.

The Consortium is primarily a volunteer effort.

Visit CPSV on the Web. Snag a copy of CPSV press release about the launch.

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Pop questions

“Are we too quick to medicate children?” Melissa Healy asks this question in the headline of an article in the Los Angeles Times. She also weaves the related question—”Are we able to discriminate between normal and atypical behavior?”—into her article.

These are generally sensible questions. They reflect issues of real concern in the scientific community. But, when the headline asks whether we presrcibe medications too quickly, one can guess the answer pretty readily. Unless I’m way off base, would many readers expect the answer to be “no?”

Indeed, the article is nearly chockfull of critical concern about diagnoses, labeling, and treatment. Ms. Healy cites research results (without revealing some of the sources) and quotes at least a half dozen experts. Some of these experts would probably be consider advocates by some of the other experts.

As is de rigeur in contemporary journalism, Ms. Healy leads (and closes) with a case example. She tells the story of a 38-year-old mother who takes her 11-year-old daughter to a psychiatrist, because the girl’s “behavior and performance in school were exemplary, but an ill-tempered outburst had gotten the preteen kicked out of a Girl Scout troop she had joined at age 5. The girl was confused and heartbroken over her ejection.”

Katie’s maternal instincts tell her she must protect her child. But from what, she asks — a disease that threatens health, happiness and future? A bogus label applied to an admittedly challenging kid? Or drugs with potentially harmful and little-studied side effects?

And protect her exactly how — by resisting or by medicating?

In general, this is not a dispassionate examination of the question under which Ms. Healy’s article appears. I say this not because I disagree with her slant, but because the treatment is sensational and poorly informed. Had she gone more deeply into the topic, she would have learned about effective behavioral treatments that provide viable alternatives to medicaiton for many child behavior problems. Instead, she stuck with the hidden-mysteries view of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of children.

Link to Ms. Healy’s article.

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