Research has identified a comorbid group of children who have both antisocial and attention problems. Many of these children demonstrate the most deleterious features of both conditions (e.g., aggression and academic underachievement) and experience the most negative outcomes, including school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, and delinquency in adolescence, than either condition alone.Treatment outcome studies, although few in number, suggest that remediation of academic deficits may be associated with reciprocal effects on social and behavioral domains.The purpose of the present study was to conduct a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of a reading intervention program for first-grade children at risk for conduct and attention problems.Academic, social, and behavioral outcome measures were examined using single case methodology. Findings support the efficacy of early intervention in the area of early reading for these children. However, the findings also suggest that while improvements were noted, the intervention may not have been of sufficient intensity and duration to (a) produce lasting changes and (b) produce beginning reading skill acquisition at a rate commensurate with normally achieving students of the same age. ESEARCH HAS DOCUMENTED A GROUPof children possessing both anti--Msocial conduct problems (CP) and attention problems (e.g., hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention [HIA]). Children demonstrating the combination of conduct and attention problems (CP + HIA) are likely to possess the worst features of both domains. They demonstrate higher frequency and intensity of physical aggression, display greater persistence and earlier onset of antisocial behavior, exhibit lower levels of peer status, have more severe academic deficits, are at heightened risk for substance use, and experience worse future outcomes (e.g., future psychopathy, chronic offending) than children with either disorder alone (Farrington,

Research over the past two decades has consistently documented the high rates of young children entering the child protective services/child welfare system with developmental and mental health problems. There is an emerging evidence base for the role of early intervention services in improving outcomes for children with developmental and mental health problems in the general population that heavily relies on accurate and appropriate screening and assessment practices. The Child Welfare League of America, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have all published guidelines concerning the importance of comprehensive assessments and appropriate referral to early intervention services for children entering out-of-home care. Recent federal legislation (P.L. 108-36) calls for increased collaboration between child welfare and public agencies to address the developmental and mental health needs of young children in foster care. This paper provides a framework for health, developmental, and mental health professionals seeking to partner with child welfare to develop and implement programs addressing these critical issues. Index termsfoster care; developmental delay; mental health; child protective services; early intervention There are more than 580,000 children 1 in the U.S. foster care system; these children represent an important and vulnerable subpopulation of youths. Especially disconcerting is the fact that a large proportion (30%) of these children are younger than 5 years of age. 2 Many children enter foster care during the early years of life when neurological development is most active and vulnerable. 3-6 Experiences before entry and while in foster care have the potential to dramatically affect a child's short-and long-term development and their emotional well-being. 7,8It is not surprising that studies have found disproportionately high rates of developmental and mental health problems among children in foster care. 9,10 These problems can have tragic and costly sequelae, including frequent placement failures, academic difficulties, increased high NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript school dropout rates, and later delinquency. 11-15 A large proportion of children enter the foster care system at ages of developmental malleability, conceptualized as ranging from 0 to 5 years. 16 There is a growing body of scientific evidence pointing to the potential of early intervention for the amelioration of developmental and behavioral problems in young children before such detrimental consequences occur. 17-19The theoretical importance of identifying young children with developmental and behavioral problems and linking them to services has been recognized by a number of professional organizations including the The importance of collaboration between social welfare agencies and health, developmental, and mental health professionals was also recently recognized by the federal government. The "Keeping Children and Families...

This study investigated race/ethnic variations in age of entry into school-based services and specialty mental health outpatient services among 1552 high-risk youths served in a publicly funded system of care. Non-Hispanic White youths were more likely to receive school-based services as compared to ethnic minority groups, and to begin use at an earlier age. In addition, the earlier a child was identified for school-based services, the earlier the child first utilized specialty outpatient mental health services. Multiple regression models showed that inclusion of race/ethnicity as a predictor significantly increased the overall variance explained in the model predicting age of first school-based services, and both race/ethnicity and first use of school-based services increased the overall variance explained in the model predicting age of first specialty mental health outpatient service use. The results suggest that involvement in school-based services may play an important role in facilitating specialty outpatient mental health service use for youths.

Children demonstrating antisocial behavior patterns are at-risk for a host of negative outcomes including school failure, peer and teacher rejection, academic difficulties, and future delinquency. These children are undoubtedly in need of effective and appropriate interventions to address problem areas in both behavioral and academic domains. To ensure that academic and sociobehavioral interventions will be more successful, three main components: (a) social validity, (b) treatment integrity, and (c) generalization and maintenance must be addressed when designing the interventions. The purpose of this article is to (a) describe the pertinent characteristics (e.g., definition, application, and assessment issues) of each of these components as they relate to school-based interventions, and (b) introduce an integrated model that illustrates the interrelatedness of these essential intervention components. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.In an effort to understand how to better serve children with learning and behavior problems, the research and teaching communities have been participating in school-based intervention research. The primary focus has been on identifying effective and efficient strategies to either prevent the development of or ameliorate the effects of a specific problem (Bullis & Walker, 1994). Although strides have been taken to link interventions to assessment results, too often the intervention is missing essential components necessary for making accurate interpretations of the intervention outcomes (Lane, Umbreit, & Beebe-Frankenberger, 1999). If the gap between research and practice is to be bridged, consumers of research must be able to affirm that the treatment outcomes are, in fact, attributable to the intervention. Too often, studies report only the research design and the reliability of the dependent variables. Yet, additional information is necessary (e.g., the accuracy with which the independent variable, namely the intervention, is implemented) to confidently conclude that the results are due to the intervention and not other extraneous factors. The purpose of this article is to introduce an integrated model of components necessary for making valid inferences from intervention research. Specifically, the necessity of components such as social validity, treatment integrity, and generalization and maintenance will be discussed.Although these intervention components serve as a core foundation for all intervention research, this article will specifically apply this model to research conducted with children at-risk for antisocial behavior. We find this focus particularly important given that (a) without effective intervention, these children and youth are likely to experience numerous longterm, negative consequences (e.g., academic failure, drop-out, criminality, substance abuse, and welfare services) which result in tremendous costs to society and the individual students themselves (Lane, 1999;Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995), and (b) there are a substantial number of children who constitute this...

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