As part of a wider study, this paper reports on Australian educators' understanding of children's typical and problematic sexual behaviour and their source of training in this area. A sample of 107 educators from government, independent and Catholic primary schools, preschools and care organisations across Australia answered an online…

This study explored caregivers' perspectives on facilitators and barriers to screening, diagnosis, and identifying and accessing other services for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); and caregivers' suggestions for improving the process. Eight focus groups with 55 caregivers were conducted. Four groups had a mix of White, African…

Research Findings: Temperament, often defined in terms of reactive and regulatory tendencies, has been shown to predict child outcomes over and above other risk factors and represents a critical aspect of social-emotional development. The present article is a systematic review of temperament-based interventions targeting caregivers, wherein the…

Background: Relationships between support staff and clients with intellectual disability (ID) are important for quality of care, especially when dealing with challenging behaviour. Building upon an interpersonal model, this study investigates the influence of client challenging behaviour, staff attitude and staff emotional intelligence on…

The current study presents findings from an acceptance and commitment therapy-based intervention for family carers of children who have an intellectual/developmental disability and display high levels of challenging behaviour. The parent well-being workshops consist of two workshops incorporating acceptance and mindfulness-based exercises and…

This article reports on outcomes of an Australian pilot school-based early intervention program called Got It! (Getting On Track In Time!). Findings contribute to evidence for the effectiveness of interventions for children with early-onset conduct problems. The Got It! program incorporates universal and targeted components for children ages five…

Despite high rates of clinically elevated anxiety difficulties in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), very few studies have systematically examined the usefulness of commonly used caregiver report anxiety screening tools with this population. This study investigated the use of the Spence Children's Anxiety…

Background: Although staff attitudes towards individuals with intellectual disability (ID) whose behaviour challenges may be an important part of a positive support culture, very little research has focused on the development of training specifically designed to change staff attitudes. Positive contact is hypothesised to be an effective way to…

Background: A gap prevails between the conceptualization of good practice in challenging behaviour management and its implementation in intellectual disability services. This study aimed to investigate staff members' perspectives of managing clients with challenging behaviours in residential services. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured…

The study focused on challenges and gaps faced by children during the transition period from early childhood development (ECD) to primary education and possible solutions to them. It adopted the qualitative methodological approach through the use of Focus Group Discussions with councillors, education officials, child care workers, chiefs, parents…

Purpose: The Multiple Family Group (MFG) service delivery model to reduce childhood disruptive behavior disorders has shown promise in engaging child welfare-involved families. This qualitative study examines caregivers' perceptions of factors that influence retention in MFGs among child welfare-involved families. Methods: Twenty-five…

Studies examining staff attitudes toward people with intellectual disability have traditionally used pre-determined categories and models or been open to researcher bias. The use of methods derived from personal construct psychology permits an objective investigation of staff views and attitudes without such limitations. Fourteen staff from an…

Background: Beliefs about the controllability of behaviour have been consistently shown to be important in understanding the responses of carers to the challenging behaviour of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This paper reports the reliability and validity of the Controllability Beliefs Scale (CBS), a 15-item measure of beliefs…

Background: Hastings (2010) has recently emphasised 3 aspects in the training of staff who serve clients with mild to moderate intellectual disability and challenging behaviour (CB): Staff attitudes, self-awareness, and clients' perspectives. This study investigates whether programs include these aspects. Method: A systematic search yielded 11…

The goal of this study was to document comorbidity profiles of psychiatric disorder and perceived need for treatment among urban adolescents with unmet behavioral health needs. Participants were 303 community-referred adolescents and their primary caregivers. Adolescents included both boys (54%) and girls and were primarily Hispanic (58%), African…