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Interventions For Children (intervention + for_children)
Selected AbstractsA Support Group Intervention for Children Bereaved by Parental SuicideJOURNAL OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC NURSING, Issue 1 2007Ann M. Mitchell PhD TOPIC:,Bereavement is considered by many to be among the most stressful of life events, and it becomes particularly distressing when it concerns the suicide death of a parent. Such an event is especially traumatic for children. PURPOSE AND SOURCES:,The purpose of this paper is to present a case for support group interventions designed specifically for child survivors of parental suicide. The authors provide a theoretical framework for supportive group interventions with these children and describe the structure of an 8-week bereavement support group for this special population of suicide survivors. CONCLUSIONS:,A case is made for designing and implementing group interventions to meet the mental health needs of this important group of individuals. [source] Issues related to the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders,DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 2 2007Paul T. Shattuck Abstract This paper explores issues and implications for diagnosis and treatment, stemming from the growing number of children identified with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Recent developments and innovations in special education and Medicaid programs are emphasized. Eligibility determination policies, innovations in diagnostic practices, the cost and financing of assessment, variability among programs in diagnostic criteria, and racial/ethnic disparities in the timing of diagnosis all influence the capacity of service systems to provide diagnoses in a timely, coordinated, accurate, economical, and equitable manner. There are several barriers to the more widespread provision of intensive intervention for children with ASDs, including lack of strong evidence of effectiveness in scaled-up public programs, uncertainty about the extent of obligations to provide services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, high cost of intervention, and variability among states in their willingness to fund intensive intervention via Medicaid. Innovative policy experiments with respect to financing intensive intervention through schools and Medicaid are being conducted in a number of states. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2007;13:129,135. [source] Parents' Evaluation of Adoption Success: A Follow-Up Study of Intercountry and Domestic AdoptionsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2009Jenny Castle BSc Parents of 165 children adopted from Romania and 52 children adopted from within the United Kingdom rated the success of the adoptions when the children were 11 years old. As was the case at two earlier study waves, satisfaction was found to be extremely high. Both positive and negative assessments were generally stable between ages 6 and 11, although for the children who had more problems there was an increase in negative evaluation, albeit within an overall positive picture. Parents' evaluations were somewhat more negative for this group of children; however, parents reported that having the child as part of their family was very rewarding. Negative evaluation was not directly related to age at placement, but appeared to be a reflection of the later-placed children's higher rates of problem behavior. As found at earlier assessment waves, child factors, in particular conduct problems and inattention or overactivity, were key in predicting parental evaluations at age 11, as were four domains closely associated with institutional deprivation, namely cognitive impairment, quasi-autistic patterns, inattention or overactivity, and disinhibited attachment. The findings emphasize the need for early intervention for children in severely deprived conditions, and for access to postadoption services that target the particular problem behaviors the children may exhibit. [source] Self-Regulation and Its Relations to Adaptive Functioning in Low Income YouthsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2009John C. Buckner PhD Most studies of self-regulation involving children have linked it to specific outcomes within a single domain of adaptive functioning. The authors examined the association of self-regulation with a range of indices of adaptive functioning among 155 youth ages 8,18 years from families with very low income. Controlling for other explanatory variables, self-regulation was strongly associated with various outcome measures in the areas of mental health, behavior, academic achievement, and social competence. The authors also contrasted youths relatively high and low in self-regulation (the top and bottom quartiles). Youths with good self-regulation had much better indices of adaptive functioning across measures of social competence, academic achievement, grades, problem behaviors, and depression and anxiety than their counterparts with more diminished self-regulatory capacities. In addition, youths with better self-regulation skills stated more adaptive responses both in terms of how they coped with past stressful live events and how they would deal with hypothetical stressors. This study indicates that self-regulation is robustly associated with a range of important indices of adaptive functioning across many domains. Findings are discussed in light of their implications for theory and intervention for children of diverse economic backgrounds. [source] Ensuring the Preconditions for Transformation Through Licensing, Regulation, Accreditation, and StandardsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2007Robert E. Lieberman MA Residential treatment is a potentially powerful intervention for children and families, currently facing the imperative to fundamentally change practice models to achieve greater quality efficacy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Such transformation is best accomplished from a solid foundation which is created by licensing, regulation, accereditation, and internal standards. [source] Cognitive hypothesis testing and response to intervention for children with reading problemsPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2006Catherine A. Fiorello Response to intervention (RTI) must be combined with comprehensive cognitive assessment to identify children with learning disabilities. This article presents the Cognitive Hypothesis Testing (CHT) model for integrating RTI and comprehensive evaluation practices in the identification of children with reading disabilities. The CHT model utilizes a scientific method approach for interpreting cognitive and neuropsychological processes together with evaluation of ecological and treatment validity data to develop targeted interventions for students who do not respond to standard academic interventions. A case study highlights how CHT practices can lead to effective interventions for a child who did not respond to a phonologically based reading intervention. In addition, discriminant analyses of 128 children with reading disabilities revealed the presence of Global, Phonemic, Fluency-Comprehension, and Orthographic subtypes. Results suggest subtypes show disparate cognitive profiles that differentially impact their reading achievement, supporting our contention that individual assessment of cognitive processing strengths and weaknesses is not only necessary for identifying children with reading disabilities but also can lead to individualized interventions designed to meet their unique learning needs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 835,853, 2006. [source] Relaxation and guided imagery as an intervention for children with asthma: A replicationPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 7 2005Robin L. Dobson Asthma is a pervasive inflammatory disorder of the bronchial airways that causes the normal functioning of the airways to become overreactive. This disorder affects approximately 8 million children in schools per year and accounts for a significant amount of absences. Researchers have speculated that pharmacological interventions are alone insufficient or overaggressive in treating asthma, and numerous studies have demonstrated a connection between emotions and asthma. It has therefore been suggested that psychological interventions may be appropriate for this population. One such intervention, relaxation and guided imagery (RGI), that incorporates mental representations as well as the senses in a process of relaxing all the parts of the body has been shown to be effective with children with asthma. The current study served as a replication and extension of this previous research. The purpose of the investigation was to examine the effectiveness of RGI with an elementary school sample as well as determine the overall improvement in happiness, anxiety, and quality of life of the participants. Results demonstrated that RGI significantly improved the lung functioning of 3 out of 4 participants in the study. Furthermore, overall happiness improved for 1 participant in the study, state anxiety decreased for 2 of the 4 participants, and trait anxiety decreased for all 4 participants. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 707,720, 2005. [source] Practitioner Review: The effectiveness of systemic family therapy for children and adolescentsTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 5 2002David Cottrell Background: Systemic family therapy has become a widely used intervention in child and adolescent mental health services over the last twenty years. Methods: This paper reviews the development of systemic family therapy, briefly describes the theory and techniques associated with the most prominent contemporary strands of systemic practice, and examines the empirical justification for using systemic family therapies with children and adolescents. Results: There is a paucity of well-designed randomised controlled trials of systemic therapies with children and adolescents and those trials that do exist evaluate older structural and strategic therapies. Methodological limitations of existing research include the use of unrepresentative participants, small sample sizes and wide age ranges. There is a lack of credible no-treatment or alternative treatment controls, tests of clinical as opposed to statistical significance, and conceptually relevant outcome measures that examine underlying interactional mechanisms. The term `family therapy' encompasses a wide range of interventions and it is not always clear what treatment intervention has been delivered. Nevertheless, there is good evidence for the effectiveness of systemic family therapies in the treatment of conduct disorders, substance misuse and eating disorders, and some support for their use as second-line treatments in depression and chronic illness. Conclusions: Systemic family therapy is an effective intervention for children and adolescents but further well-designed outcome studies are needed using clearly specified, manualised forms of treatment and conceptually relevant outcome measures. [source] Cognitive strategy use by children with Asperger's syndrome during intervention for motor-based goalsAUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009Sylvia Rodger Background:,Cognitive Orientation for (daily) Occupational Performance (CO-OP) is a cognitive approach utilised by occupational therapists to help guide children in the discovery of appropriate strategies for effective task performance through a structured problem-solving process. There has been limited research into its utility for children with Asperger's syndrome (AS). These children often present with motor difficulties, although these are not required for diagnosis of the syndrome. A recent study found that children with AS were able to use the CO-OP framework to enhance their performance of motor-based goals. Methods:,This paper presents two case studies demonstrating the use of CO-OP with children with AS, and explores the global and domain-specific strategies and types of guidance utilised to improve their task performance. Two children with AS, aged 9 and 11, with above average intellectual ability, engaged in 10 sessions of CO-OP. All sessions were videotaped. One hundred minutes of randomly selected footage were coded per child using the Observer Software Package version 5.0. Results:,The mean interrater agreement for the two children was 94.06% and 89.30%. Both children (i) utilised the global strategies ,do', followed by ,plan' and ,check', (ii) used at least three domain-specific strategies in each session with ,task specification/modification' and ,body position' utilised most, and (iii) used limited verbal self-guidance. Conclusion:,These two children with AS were able to utilise cognitive strategies to effectively solve their motor performance problems. Children with AS and those with DCD used similar strategies to achieve motor goals. CO-OP appears to have potential as an effective intervention for children with AS. Study limitations, clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed. [source] An Evaluation of a Primary Care-Based Child Clinical Psychology ServiceCHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2002Sharon Abrahams Background: This paper describes a primary care-based clinical psychology service operating in an inner London borough that provides psychological intervention for children with emotional or behavioural difficulties and their families, and consultation and support to the primary health care teams. Method: A comparison is made with a local secondary level child mental health service in terms of characteristics of referrals and clinical outcome. Referrers' perceptions of the primary care-based service are described. Results and Conclusions: The findings demonstrate a useful child and adolescent mental health service for children and adolescents with a broad range of childhood difficulties within a primary care setting, which appears to overcome some of the problems often associated with referral to secondary level services. [source] Psycho-educational interventions for children and young people with Type 1 diabetesDIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 9 2006H. R. Murphy Abstract Background, A systematic review of the literature in 2000 revealed numerous methodological shortcomings in education research, but in recent years progress has been made in the quantity and quality of psycho-educational intervention studies. Summary of contents, This review focuses on diabetes education programmes developed for children, young people and their families in the past 5 years. A comprehensive review of the literature identified 27 articles describing the evaluation of 24 psycho-educational interventions. Data summary tables compare the key features of these, and comparisons are made between individual, group and family-based interventions. Effect sizes are calculated for nine of the randomized studies. Three research questions are posed: firstly has the recent literature addressed the problems highlighted in the previous review; secondly is there sufficient evidence to recommend adaptation of a particular programme; and, finally, what do we still need to do? Conclusions, Progress in the quality and quantity of educational research has not resulted in improved effectiveness of interventions. There is still insufficient evidence to recommend adaptation of a particular educational programme and no programme that has been proven effective in randomized studies for those with poor glycaemic control. To develop a range of effective educational interventions, further research involving larger sample sizes with multicentre collaboration is required. [source] Shared minds: Effects of a mother's imitation of her child on the mother,child interaction,INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 2 2009Wakako Sanefuji Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have impaired social interaction right from early development. Previous studies (Dawson & Adams, 1984; Tiegerman & Primavera, 1981, 1984) have suggested that imitating children with ASD is effective in facilitating their social behaviors. The present case report, through a 6-month intervention, investigated how a home-based intervention of helping a mother imitate her 21-month-old child with ASD impacted the child's development of social communication outside the experimental settings. Our results show that the mother's imitation of her child might be associated with the development of nonverbal joint attention skills. Positive changes in the mother's emotion towards her child and the mother,child interaction also were noted and represent other important effects of parental involvement in therapeutic interventions for children with ASD. [source] A Tiered Intervention Model for Early Vocabulary Instruction: The Effects of Tiered Instruction for Young Students At Risk for Reading DisabilityLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 3 2010Paige C. Pullen Vocabulary knowledge at school entry is a robust predictor of later reading achievement. Many children begin formal reading instruction at a significant disadvantage due to low levels of vocabulary. Until recently, relatively few research studies examined the efficacy of vocabulary interventions for children in the early primary grades (e.g., before fourth grade), and even fewer addressed vocabulary intervention for students at increased risk for reading failure. In more recent work, researchers have begun to explore ways in which to diminish the "meaningful differences" in language achievement noted among children as they enter formal schooling. This article provides a review of a particularly effective model of vocabulary intervention based on shared storybook reading and situates this model in a context of tiered intervention, an emerging model of instructional design in the field of special education. In addition, we describe a quasi-experimental posttest-only study that examines the feasibility and effectiveness of the model for first-grade students. Participants were 224 first-grade students of whom 98 were identified as at risk for reading disability based on low levels of vocabulary. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences on measures of target vocabulary knowledge at the receptive and context level, suggesting that students at risk for reading failure benefit significantly from a second tier of vocabulary instruction. Implications for classroom practice as well as future research are provided. [source] A systematic review of psychological interventions for children with asthmaPEDIATRIC PULMONOLOGY, Issue 2 2007Grad., Janelle Yorke MSc Abstract Aim: Psychological factors may influence the symptoms and management of asthma in children in many ways. It is, therefore, suggested that psychological interventions may be appropriate for this population. This paper reports a systematic review assessing the efficacy of psychological interventions in improving health outcomes for children with asthma. Methodology: A review of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) was designed. RCTs assessing the effects of a psychological intervention in child participants were included in the review. Outcome measures included healthcare utilization, lung function, asthma symptoms, and psychological health status. The search was conducted until April 2005. Results: Twelve studies, involving 588 children, were included in the review; however, study quality was poor and sample sizes were frequently small. A meta-analysis was performed on two studies, examining the effects of relaxation therapy on PEFR which favored the treatment group (SD 0.82, CI 0.41,1.24). No other meta-analysis could be performed due to the diversity of interventions and the outcomes assessed. In addition, many studies reported insufficient data. Conclusions: This review was unable to draw firm conclusions for the role of psychological interventions for children with asthma. We recommend that valid outcome measures for evaluating the effectiveness of psychological interventions for children with asthma need to address adjustment to and coping with asthma, as well as other psychological indicators. The absence of an adequate evidence base is demonstrated, highlighting the need for well-conducted RCTs in this area. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2007; 42:114,124. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Modifying socially withdrawn behavior: A playground intervention for students with internalizing behaviorsPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2007Michelle R. Marchant There is little research regarding interventions for children with internalizing behaviors in schools, both within classrooms and in nonclassroom environments. In response to this need, a nonclassroom treatment package, consisting of (a) social skills instruction, (b) mediated self-management, and (c) a reinforcement system, was implemented to modify the socially withdrawn behavior of 3 elementary students. The effects of this treatment package were evaluated on the school playground,during recess,by recording both the number of communicative acts and the total time spent engaged in appropriate peer play for each target student. All target students showed marked improvement in their playground, social interaction. Future research should be conducted with similar populations, using variations of the described methods in other school settings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 779,794, 2007. [source] Practitioner Review: Psychosocial interventions for children with selective mutism: a critical evaluation of the literature from 1990,2005THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 11 2006Sharon L. Cohan Background:, There have been several reports of successful psychosocial interventions for children with selective mutism (SM), a disorder in which a child consistently fails to speak in one or more social settings (e.g., school) despite speaking normally in other settings (e.g., home). The present literature review was undertaken in order to provide an up-to-date summary and critique of the SM treatment literature published in the past fifteen years. Methods:, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases were searched to identify SM treatment studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2005. Results:, A total of 23 studies were included in the present review. Of these, ten used a behavioral/cognitive behavioral approach, one used a behavioral language training approach, one used a family systems approach, five used a psychodynamic approach, and six used multimodal approaches to SM treatment. Conclusions:, Although much of this literature is limited by methodological weaknesses, the existing research provides support for the use of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions. Multimodal treatments also appear promising, but the essential components of these interventions have yet to be established. An outline of a cognitive-behavioral treatment package for a typical SM child is provided and the review concludes with suggestions for future research. [source] Annotation: Development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: behavioural and neurological perspectivesTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 7 2004Catherine Herba Background:, Intact emotion processing is critical for normal emotional development. Recent advances in neuroimaging have facilitated the examination of brain development, and have allowed for the exploration of the relationships between the development of emotion processing abilities, and that of associated neural systems. Methods:, A literature review was performed of published studies examining the development of emotion expression recognition in normal children and psychiatric populations, and of the development of neural systems important for emotion processing. Results:, Few studies have explored the development of emotion expression recognition throughout childhood and adolescence. Behavioural studies suggest continued development throughout childhood and adolescence (reflected by accuracy scores and speed of processing), which varies according to the category of emotion displayed. Factors such as sex, socio-economic status, and verbal ability may also affect this development. Functional neuroimaging studies in adults highlight the role of the amygdala in emotion processing. Results of the few neuroimaging studies in children have focused on the role of the amygdala in the recognition of fearful expressions. Although results are inconsistent, they provide evidence throughout childhood and adolescence for the continued development of and sex differences in amygdalar function in response to fearful expressions. Studies exploring emotion expression recognition in psychiatric populations of children and adolescents suggest deficits that are specific to the type of disorder and to the emotion displayed. Conclusions:, Results from behavioural and neuroimaging studies indicate continued development of emotion expression recognition and neural regions important for this process throughout childhood and adolescence. Methodological inconsistencies and disparate findings make any conclusion difficult, however. Further studies are required examining the relationship between the development of emotion expression recognition and that of underlying neural systems, in particular subcortical and prefrontal cortical structures. These will inform understanding of the neural bases of normal and abnormal emotional development, and aid the development of earlier interventions for children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. [source] Benefits of adding precision teaching to behavioral interventions for students with autismBEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS, Issue 4 2002Richard M. Kubina Jr. Students with autism have a variety of learning characteristics that can provide challenges to teachers. Precision Teaching, a method providing frequent assessment of performance, facilitation of curricular decisions, and techniques for developing fluency, can help teachers enhance educational outcomes for students with autism. Teachers can use the techniques found in Precision Teaching to augment their current instructional methods. This article purposes to examine the potential benefits of adding Precision Teaching to behavioral interventions for children with autism. This paper will define Precision Teaching, and review its guidelines within the context of a hypothetical case study. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Recent Developments in Anorexia NervosaCHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2006Rachel Bryant-Waugh Background:, This review summarises recent clinical developments, topics of debate, and research findings in relation to anorexia nervosa in children and adolescents. Following an update of diagnostic and prevalence issues, recent developments in treatment approaches are discussed. These cover recommendations for the medical management of anorexia nervosa in young people, as well as psychological interventions for children, adolescents and their families. The question of which type of service setting is most appropriate for the treatment of young people with anorexia nervosa remains a subject of discussion, and recent guidance and work in this area is presented. Finally, the ongoing relatively poor prognosis in terms of general mental health associated with anorexia nervosa is highlighted and the implications for CAMHS practitioners discussed. [source] A pilot study of psychopathology in Developmental Coordination DisorderCHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2006D. Green Abstract Background This paper explores the prevalence of emotional and behavioural disorders in children referred to a Community Paediatric Occupational Therapy service for assessment and treatment of problems with development of motor skills. Methods Parents of 47 children from a clinical sample of children who had been identified with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) returned the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) , a brief measure of the pro-social behaviour and psychopathology that can be completed by parents, teachers or youths. Results Significant emotional and behavioural problems were reported by 29 parents (62%) with a further six (13%) reporting problems in the borderline range. Seven children (15%) were without significant problems in one or more area although only four of these (9%) were outside the borderline range for all of the sub-domains of the SDQ. Discussion A significant proportion of children with DCD were reported by their parents to be at risk of psychopathology. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between motor difficulties and emotional and behavioural symptoms; however, it is recommended that interventions for children with DCD should support mental health and behavioural problems as well as motor development. [source] |