In this article, Mark Freado and Howard Bath present the case of an 11 year boy who had been arrested and charged with the murder of his two-year-old cousin. Because of the severity of the criminal charge against this boy, and despite his age, a transfer hearing was set to determine whether he would be tried as a juvenile or an adult. Such…

Children with serious emotional and behavioral problems often present challenges that far exceed what seems to be manageable. Despite the best intentions and efforts, youth move through multiple failed services because of the lack of progress, the "failure to adjust," and a presumed need for a higher level of care. Renewing Our…

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 high school student with a learning disability struggles under intense pressure to meet standards of a state's standardized testing. Fearing that his failure will cause teachers to be fired, he acts out in ways to be punished. This interview shows how valuable it is to drain off intense emotions and make sense of a situation following a…

Since the early 1950s, trends in children's mental health have moved care from residential and office-based treatment to community-based interventions. The Pressley Ridge Treatment Foster Care (PRTFC) program was developed in 1981 in response to these trends. Currently, Pressley Ridge provides PR-TFC treatment in 15 programs in six states and the…

Adults often feel the pressures of today's fast-paced world and think back longingly to a time when their daily lives were a lot less hectic. One third of the respondents in one study report that they are living with "extreme stress" and almost half feel that the level of stress in their lives has increased over the past five years. Children are…

Preschool children and toddlers often display emotional and behavioral problems. Without early intervention, these difficulties can lead to serious problems in later years. This research from Belgium explores how Life Space Crisis Intervention and Developmental Therapy-Developmental Teaching can inform work with these young children. (Contains 2…

In creating Project Re-ED, Nicholas Hobbs (1913-1983) embarked on a bold new approach to emotionally troubled children and youth. Re-ED, an acronym for the Re-education of Emotionally Disturbed Children, builds on positive concepts of normalcy and health rather than deviance and illness. Hobbs had been impressed by the "educateur" of Europe and…

In order to thrive, organizations must undergo significant change at various points in their development. Such is the case with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Emotional Disability Services in the beginning process of implementing Response Ability Pathways (RAP) with staff and students. The impetus for change originated from an…

Over 400 educators and youth professionals have completed Life Space Crisis Intervention training offered by the Charlevoix-Emmett Intermediate School District in rural northern Michigan. In this article, participants describe how significant changes in their own perceptions, mindsets, and actions translate into direct benefits for themselves and…

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.…

Fifty years ago, psychologist Nicholas Hobbs led a group of divergent thinking professionals who introduced a new way of perceiving the problems and needs of young people. The National Institute of Mental Health gave a two-million-dollar grant to George Peabody College for Teachers, now a part of Vanderbilt University. Hobbs and colleagues studied…

This issue celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Re-ED model for troubled and troubling children. Long before concepts like "strength-based" and "evidence-based" entered the field, these were central to the principles of Re-Education. Guest editor James Doncaster of Pressley Ridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, begins by introducing the…

Nearly half a century ago, a star-crossed adolescent found himself at an important crossroads. Just five months shy of his eighteenth birthday and newly released from an 18-month court commitment to the Pennsylvania George Junior Republic School for Boys (Brown, 1983), a congregate facility for court-adjudicated delinquents and foster youth, he…

In work with troubled children, it is important to distinguish between emotional problems that are social in origin and those of a biological or medical nature. Over the past 50 years, many mental health professionals have come to believe that these problems are primarily biological and thus should be treated pharmaceutically. This disease model…