A posttest only control group design was used to investigate the effects of two programs to teach firearm injury prevention skills to second and third grade children. Children were taught the safety skills "Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult." should they ever find a firearm. The effectiveness of the National Rifle Association's…

Unintentional firearm injury in children is a problem in the United States that warrants attention. Recent research has identified several risk factors for such injuries and has developed prevention strategies for reducing their occurrence. Many of these programs, however, have not been evaluated or have been shown to be ineffective. Research on…

This article describes use of the Awareness Enhancement Device with a typically developing 6-year-old child to reduce finger sucking despite the child's lack of motivation. This device delivers a tone contingent on occurrence of the target behavior. Substantial reductions in finger sucking resulted only with the addition of a more intense tone (90…

Identifies major issues in current research on child sexual-abuse prevention including the effectiveness of assessment methods, potential side-effects of prevention programs, the developmental appropriateness of programs, the differential effectiveness of presenters of prevention materials, parental involvement in sexual-abuse prevention efforts,…

A survey of 288 elementary and secondary North Dakota schools found 75% had a school refusal behavior (SRB) identification system in place, 57% had a school psychologist available, principals were most frequently responsible for identifying school refusers, 2.3% of students were identified as school refusers of which 49% falsely claimed illness,…

This study reviewed the research evaluating procedures for teaching abduction prevention skills to children. Examination of types of skills, types of abduction scenarios, training procedures, and assessment strategies indicated that children can learn abduction prevention skills through behavioral skills training procedures, and that individual…

Discusses diagnostic and functional classification, assessment, and treatment approaches for school refusal behavior. Diagnostic classification focuses on separation anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, depression, and truancy. Functional classification focuses on the maintaining consequences of the behavior, such as avoidance of…

This paper first reviews four classes of habit disorders in children: motor and vocal tics, nervous habits, stuttering, and Tourette's disorder. It then describes the habit reversal procedure and reviews the literature on its use and variations to treat each of the four classes of habit disorders. Emphasis is on simplified versions of the original…

Presentation of classroom-based abduction prevention training to preschool children (n=62) indicated that a videotape condition and a training manual condition were both superior to the no treatment control condition. Correspondence between the children's verbal and nonverbal behavior was low. (Author/JDD)