One barrier to medication adherence in pediatric populations is difficulty swallowing pills. Some children may not have prerequisite skills for pill swallowing, while others may have developed conditioned anxiety from repeated negative experiences. Eight children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autistic disorder participated in behavioral training to increase cooperation with pill swallowing. A pill-swallowing protocol was utilized during practice sessions with placebo "pills" of increasing size to implement systematic desensitization. Seven of the 8 children swallowed medication with a therapist. Six of the 8 children maintained treatment gains over time. Interventions used to succeed with these children are presented along with methods to reduce conditioned behavioral distress.

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When comparing children with and without oral clefts in an experimental setting, with a relatively small sample size, behavior analysis identified some significant differences in patterns of social behavior but not in the ability to express facial emotion. Results suggest that many children with oral clefts may have relatively typical social development. However, for those who do have social competence deficits, systematic behavioral observation of atypical social responses may help individualize social skills interventions.