This book is the first to offer a comprehensive overview of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI), which are evidence-based interventions that integrate both behavioral and developmental approaches in the treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
How Animals Help Students Learn summarizes what we know about the impact of animals in education and synthesizes the thinking of prominent leaders in research and practice. It’s a much-needed resource for mental-health and education professionals interested in incorporating animals in school-based environments, one that evaluates the efficacy of existing programs and helps move the field toward evidence-based practice. Experts from around the world provide concrete examples of how animals have been successfully incorporated into classroom settings to achieve the highest level of benefit while also ensuring the health and welfare of the students and animals involved.
This handbook offers a theoretical foundation for the adaptation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families. The volume examines current treatments for children with ASD and provides a rationale for why PCIT is considered a strong option to address many of the concerns found within this population of children and families. It presents an overview of PCIT theory, the goals of PCIT, the unique aspects of the treatment, and the exceptional outcomes. The handbook demonstrates the versatility of PCIT in conjunction with standard science-based therapies in addressing specific behavioral problems in this young population. Chapters provide a theoretical basis for PCIT, the empirical evidence for its efficacy, clinical considerations, and training issues. Chapters also offer a selection of case studies that help illustrate how PCIT has been successful in treating children with autism. The handbook concludes by identifying the gaps that need to be addressed by future research. Topics featured in the Handbook include: A clinical description of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. The effects of medication for individuals with ASD. The importance of parent-child interactions in social communication and development. Teaching complex social behavior to children with ASD. Internet-delivered PCIT (I-PCIT) for children with autism. Child-Directed Interaction treatments for children with ASD. Parent-Directed Interaction treatments for children on the autism spectrum. The Handbook of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for Children on the Autism Spectrum is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, clinicians/practitioners/therapists, and graduate students across many interrelated disciplines, including child and school psychology, behavioral therapy, social work, child and adolescent psychiatry, pediatrics, and family studies as well as occupational therapy, physical therapy, behavior analysis, and speech therapy.
This impressive collection features Richard Herrnstein's most important and original contributions to the social and behavioral sciences--his papers on choice behavior in animals and humans and on his discovery and elucidation of a general principle of choice called the matching law. In recent years, the most popular theory of choice behavior has been rational choice theory. Developed and elaborated by economists over the past hundred years, it claims that individuals make choices in such a way as to maximize their well-being or utility under whatever constraints they face; that is, people make the best of their situations. Rational choice theory holds undisputed sway in economics, and has become an important explanatory framework in political science, sociology, and psychology. Nevertheless, its empirical support is thin. The matching law is perhaps the most important competing explanatory account of choice behavior. It views choice not as a single event or an internal process of the organism but as a rate of observable events over time. It states that instead of maximizing utility, the organism allocates its behavior over various activities in exact proportion to the value derived from each activity. It differs subtly but significantly from rational choice theory in its predictions of how people exert self-control, for example, how they decide whether to forgo immediate pleasures for larger but delayed rewards. It provides, through the primrose path hypothesis, a powerful explanation of alcohol and narcotic addiction. It can also be used to explain biological phenomena, such as genetic selection and foraging behavior, as well as economic decision making.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.