Also in this Issue:
- Prevention
of Antisocial Behaviour in Schools
- What
Works and Does Not Work for ADHD Children?
- Television and Violent Behaviours
- Bullying and its Consequences
- Effective Psychosocial Treatments for
Youth with Conduct Disorder
- Child Neglect, Temperament, and Family
Context
- Infant Temperament and Early Intervention:
A Fifteen-Year Follow-up Study
- Differences Between Mother's and Father's
Perception of Their Children's Antisocial Behaviour
- Physical and Sexual Abuse and Gang
Involvement
 Prevention
of Antisocial Behaviour in Schools
Walker, H.M., Kavanagh, K., Stiller,
B., Golly, A., Severson, H.H., & Feil, E.G. (1998). First step to success: An
early intervention approach for preventing school antisocial behavior. Journal
of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 6, 66-80.
In this article the authors report on the development
and testing of a comprehensive model intervention, called First Step to Success,
for detecting and remediating antisocial behaviour patterns at the point of school
entry.
First Step to Success
- is a combined home and school intervention
that also contains universal screening procedures to identify kindergartners showing
early signs of involvement in an antisocial path.
- targets the three social agents having
the greatest influence on the developing child (i.e., parents or caregivers, teachers,
and peers).
- The primary goal of the program is
to prevent antisocial kindergartners from carrying on with antisocial patterns of
behaviour while teaching them the skills needed to build effective, teacher- and
peer-related, social and behavioural skills.
The First Step to Success program was carried
out and evaluated over a 2-year period. Two groups of at-risk kindergartners (a total
of 46 children) were identified and exposed to the program. Children were randomly
assigned to either the experimental or wait-list control group (who participated
in the program one year later). Results from the two groups were used to evaluate
the intervention's effects and to establish a causal relationship between the intervention
and the documented changes in child behaviour.
The authors conclude that
"mounting universal screening
procedures to detect emerging antisocial behavior patterns among kindergarten and
primary grade-level programs represents one of the best options available for reducing
the rising tide of antisocial behavior in schools."
The authors go on to explain why they feel early
intervention is important:
"Powerful evidence suggests
that antisocial children and youth follow a developmental trajectory in which the
antisocial acts they engage become more serious. Their early identification and exposure
to interventions designed to divert them from this path is clearly in public interest.
As public policy, this strategy could save millions of dollars in later incarceration
costs."
What
Works and Does Not Work for ADHD Children?
Pelham Jr., W.E., Wheeler, T., &
Chronis, A. (1998). Empirically supported psychosocial treatments for Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27, 190-205.
In this critical review of treatments
for ADHD children the authors conclude:
- Medications such as Ritalin (methylphenidate):
- have significant benefits in many
areas, including classroom performance.
- have not proven effective in improving
long term academic achievement
- do not make these children any more
liked by their peers.
- have not proven to improve long term
prognosis
- Training parents in behavioural methods
(rewarding good behaviour and ignoring or punishing difficult behaviour) seems to
produce good results.
- Behavioural interventions in classroom
settings have proven effective.
- Cognitive behaviour therapies do not
lead to positive results in the behaviour or in the academic performance of children
with ADHD.
Cognitive therapies include verbal self instructions,
problem solving skills, self monitoring, and other therapies which aim to help the
child to control his or her attention and impulse. Children with ADHD, because of
their poor attention span and lack of impulse control, are unable to learn the techniques
and monitor their behaviour.
- It is suggested that multimodal treatments
may be the most cost-effective treatment for children with ADHD. Multimodal treatment
involves a combination of small doses of stimulant medication (such as Ritalin) and
behavioural treatments.
|
|
|
