Treating Childhood Anxiety in Schools: Service Delivery in a Response to Intervention Paradigm

Millions of youth who attend schools in the United States suffer from clinically significant anxiety. Left untreated, these students often experience significant disruptions in their academic, social, and family functioning. Fortunately, promising treatments exist for childhood anxiety that are amenable for delivery in school settings. However, educational law and new service delivery paradigms such as response-to-intervention (RtI) affect the delivery of anxiety interventions. In light of extant laws and practices that govern education, this article discusses the provision of supportive services to address childhood anxiety. Specifically, this article reviews how RtI, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, and Section?504 of the Rehabilitation Act guide service delivery and subsequently impact school-based anxiety treatments. Suggestions are provided to address childhood anxiety within a framework that allows for graduated and fluid service delivery.     

Has cyber technology produced a new group of peer aggressors?

Cyber technology provides a new venue for the expression of aggression. However, whether cyber technology has produced a new group of peer aggressors or simply allowed aggressive peers new tools to victimize others is unclear. This study sampled 1,672 adolescents to assess their engagement in cyber aggression. Although "cyber," "overt," and "relational" represent distinct subtypes of aggressive behavior, our results indicate that adolescents' behaviors clustered according to their frequency-not type-of aggression. Thus cyber technology provides new tools for youth who already engage in aggressive behaviors in the physical world to victimize peers in cyberspace.     

Object individuation using property/kind information in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Around 1 year of age, infants develop the ability to individuate objects in the absence of spatiotemporal information. Some have proposed that this capacity relies on the emergence of language and, in particular, that comprehending an object's label is required to individuate it as a particular kind. One approach to testing this hypothesis is to conduct experiments on pre-linguistic human infants. A second is to test non-linguistic animals. We followed the second approach, exploring whether semi-free-ranging rhesus macaques can individuate objects using property/kind information. To make the results most directly comparable, we adapted a reaching paradigm used to examine property/kind individuation in infants. Results from three experiments demonstrate that, like 12-month-old infants, adult rhesus macaques can use both spatiotemporal and property/kind information to individuate food objects. In a fourth experiment designed to examine which properties are used to individuate food objects, results revealed that rhesus use color, but not shape. These results, together with experiments involving different procedures, provide support for the conclusion that in the absence of linguistic abilities, some non-human primates spontaneously use property/kind information to individuate objects.     

Can rhesus monkeys spontaneously subtract?

Animals, including pigeons, parrots, raccoons, ferrets, rats, New and Old World monkeys, and apes are capable of numerical computations. Much of the evidence for such capacities is based on the use of techniques that require training. Recently, however, several studies conducted under both laboratory and field conditions have employed methods that tap spontaneous numerical representations in animals, including human infants. In this paper, we present the results of 11 experiments exploring the capacity of semi-free-ranging adult rhesus monkeys to spontaneously compute (i.e. single trial, no training) the outcome of subtraction events. In the basic design, we present one quantity of objects on one stage, a second quantity on a second stage, occlude both stages, and then remove one or no objects from each stage. Having watched these events, a subject is then allowed to approach one stage and eat the food objects behind the occluder. Results show that rhesus monkeys correctly compute the outcome of subtraction events involving three or less objects on each stage, even when the identity of the objects is different. Specifically, when presented with two food quantities, rhesus monkeys select the larger quantity following subtractions of one piece of food from two or three; this preference is maintained when subjects must distinguish food from non-food subtractions, and when food is subtracted from either one or both initial quantities. Furthermore, rhesus monkeys are capable of representing zero as well as equality when two identical quantities are contrasted. Results are discussed in light of recent attempts to determine how number is represented in the brains of animals lacking language.     

First-Line Treatment for Pediatric Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

Pediatric obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric disorder that impairs children’s functioning in home, school, and community settings. Once thought to be an untreatable or treatment refractory disorder, evidence-based treatments now exist for pediatric OCD. Various psychological treatment approaches for pediatric OCD have been investigated and research supports the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention (E/RP) and combined CBT/E/RP with serotonin reuptake inhibitor pharmacotherapy. This paper reviews these approaches and highlights the prominent role of CBT/E/RP as a first-line treatment for pediatric OCD.     

Exposure and Response Prevention and Habit Reversal Training: Commonalities, Differential Use, and Combined Applications

Obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders (OCSDs) have compulsive (i.e., anxiety reductive) and impulsive (i.e., driven by emotional or involuntary impulses) features. The best established psychological treatments for these disorders are behavioral/cognitive-behavioral in nature. More specifically, exposure and response prevention (ERP) (with or without cognitive therapy) and habit reversal training (HRT) are commonly indicated in the treatment of OCSDs. This paper reviews the use of various components of these therapeutic approaches to treat compulsive and impulsive symptomology in individuals with variants of these disorders. Specifically, ERP monotherapy for compulsive (e.g., obsessive-compulsive, body dysmorphic) and impulsive symptoms (e.g., tics, trichotillomania) is discussed as well as a combined treatment approach that integrates elements of ERP and HRT for individuals displaying mixed symptomology. A case example is also provided that illustrates the successful application of various components of ERP and HRT to treat OCSD symptoms. Lastly, other potential OCSD treatments are discussed.