The communicative spontaneity of children with autism who had limited spoken language in their natural environment was investigated. This naturalistic observation is a preliminary study using a continuum model to describe the nature of communicative spontaneity. The results indicate that the level of communicative spontaneity in the natural…

This paper draws on qualitative data from an Australian longitudinal study begun in 1997 and completed in 2005. It identifies the ordinary, everyday, relational, "little things" that teachers do to nurture and promote their students' resilience at school. It briefly uses Giddens' structuration theory to justify the study of micro-level…

Educational psychologists (EPs) have for many years been developing techniques for listening to children. The aim of the present research was to investigate ways of listening to the "spiritual" views of children in order to develop questions that educational psychologists might use as part of the assessment repertoire. The study explored…

Introduction: This cross-cultural study compared both the symptoms of anxiety and their severity in a community sample of children from Colombia and Australia. Method: The sample comprised 516 children (253 Australian children and 263 Colombian children), aged 8 to 12-years-old. The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS) was used to measure both…

The development of conduct and emotional problems involves a complex interplay between environmental and genetic factors. The child-rearing environment contributes to this process. Gross deviations, such as those seen in abusive or neglectful homes, or where the parent has serious mental health problems, have been shown to contribute to the…

We examined aggressive behavior in 6- to 12-year-old children, including 20 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on stimulant medication, 19 children with ADHD on placebo (n = 19), and 32 controls. Children completed a laboratory provocation task designed to measure hostile, instrumental, reactive, and proactive…

This randomized clinical trial compared cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with minimal parent involvement to CBT with active parent involvement in a sample of 119 youths (7-16 years old; 33.6% Caucasian, 61.3% Latino) with anxiety disorders. The dynamics of change between youth anxiety and parent variables (positive-negative behaviors toward the…

This study examined the effectiveness of a 30 week social competence and social skills group intervention program with children, ages 7-11, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Eighteen children with ASD were assessed with pretreatment and posttreatment measures on the Walker-McConnell Scale (WMS) and the MGH YouthCare Social Competence…

Objective: Compare a questionnaire based on the HEADSS approach (QBH-16) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) in the screening of mental disorder in adolescents with behavioral problems. Methods: Adolescents from both genders 12-17 years-old presenting behavioral problems without a previous diagnosis of mental disorder were referred from…

This paper examines identical 12-year-old twins with language difficulties, one of whom falls into the diagnostic remit of SLI while the other does not due to IQ differences. Further diagnostic testing was carried out and their language was analysed to determine whether their diagnoses were reflected by different linguistic abilities. Results show…

Objective: The objective of this study is twofold. The first objective is to explore the extent of family maltreatment experiences of children in protective care in South Korea. The second objective is to analyze the circumstances around the maltreatment and to obtain a better understanding of how maltreated children deal with the experience.…

The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC) is one of the most accepted tools, both in clinical practice and in research, for the diagnosis of Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCDs) in children. The present study aimed to: (1) establish the construct validity of M-ABC in Israel by comparing the motor performance of typically…

Despite growing research results indicating that shyness is a risk factor for psychosocial maladjustment in childhood, less is known about the conceptual mechanisms that may underlie these associations. The purpose of the current study was to explore links between self-reported shyness, coping strategies and social functioning in middle childhood.…

The objective of the present research study was to understand what benefits the use of audiobooks (both school-books and books of various genres, recorded on digital media) could bring to preadolescents and adolescents with developmental dyslexia. Two groups, each consisting of 20 adolescents, were compared. The experimental group used the…

We investigated age-related differences in a dynamic collision avoidance task that bears a resemblance to pedestrian road crossing. Five- to seven-year-old children, ten- to twelve-year-old children and adults were instructed to push a doll across a small-scale road between two toy vehicles, which approached one after the other. We analysed the…