Children must be empowered to find their unique path to personal pride and respect. The concept of empowering youth is widely touted but often misunderstood and underutilized. Young people cannot fully develop their strengths and independence without being empowered to take charge of their lives. The polar opposite of coercion, empowerment is…

In this article, Robert Honour, Training and Staff Development Manager, at the Fairfax, Virginia, Department of Family Services (DFS), reports on the outcome of "Healing Racism" training at his organization. Participants in "Healing Racism Institutes" are transforming relationships and creating an organizational culture that…

The Positive Behavior Support Team at Madison Metropolitan School District (Wisconsin) provides consultation and wrap-around services for students who exhibit significant physical or sexual aggression. Several members of the team received training in the Three Pillars of TraumaWise Care curriculum from Reclaiming Youth International. This article…

Aggression Replacement Training (ART) was developed by the late Arnold Goldstein of Syracuse University to teach positive alternatives to children and youth with emotional and behavioral problems (Glick & Gibbs, 2011; Goldstein, Glick, & Gibbs, 1998). ART provides cognitive, affective, and behavioral interventions to build competence in…

Periodic mass school shootings and the steady slaughter of youth on the streets of our cities are both products of cultures of violence. The authors highlight key factors that promote or prevent such acts, beginning with the little-known account of a young boy who perpetuated the most deadly school violence in history.

A child and adolescent psychiatrist describes the dyadic nature of family conflict and provides practical strategies for preventing and managing interpersonal aggression. When parents ignore basic needs such as sleep, hunger, hydration, safety, and security, their children are likely to display qualities like hyperactivity, hypervigilance. and…

Understanding the Passive Aggressive Conflict Cycle (PACC) helps observers to be able to look beyond behavior and better understand what is occurring beneath the surface. This article presents a real-life example of a seemingly minor conflict between a teacher and child that elicited an apparent major overreaction by the adult. Also provided is a…

Anti-bullying experts employ trade books in dealing with contemporary issues facing young people, including bullying. At least three conceptual strands underpin the application of young adult literature (YAL) in such enterprises: (1) reliance on tested voices appealing to young readers; (2) the potential effect of quality YAL on literacy…

This discussion is drawn from the writings of two eminent founders of strength-based approaches to troubled children and adolescents. August Aichhorn is best known for his classic book, "Wayward Youth," and Fritz Redl as co-author of "Children Who Hate". August Aichhorn and Anna Freud mentored a young educational psychologist, Fritz Redl…

Training for special education teachers rarely addresses how to work with students who are in crisis or who are displaying aggression. Often teachers are instructed that disruptive students should be punished or excluded from the classroom. The behavior management style becomes one of authority, power, and control rather than problem solving.…

There is a need for proactive support and early intervention to meet the needs of behaviorally at-risk students. There is limited opportunity to intervene with effective results, given that stability of antisocial behavior increases dramatically over time. Moreover, if antisocial behavior patterns are not addressed early on, these children tend to…

Aggression Replacement Training[R] (ART) is a psychoeducational approach to working with young people who experience difficulties with interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior. ART[R] originated with Skillstreaming and developed into a three-component model. Arnold P. Goldstein recognized that the complex problems of youth would not…

Despite the numerous, disparate, and often unfair demands placed upon educators to be all things to all students, they need to be prepared to teach better behavior every day. Perhaps of even greater importance is finding ways of becoming tougher in not giving up on them when they say and do things that are annoying, obnoxious, and inappropriate so…

This story gives a brief overview of the possibilities and opportunities of the Symptom Estrangement Reclaiming Intervention. It is the history of a three-year effort with a child caught in this self-defeating pattern of behaviour.

Youth diagnosed with "conduct disorder" are often placed in programs using forced compliance and coercive control. One type of intervention used to treat conduct disorder is the boot camp. The basic idea is that disruptive behaviors can be corrected by strict behavioral regulation and an emphasis on skills training (Weis & Toolis 2009; Weis,…