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Children and adolescents in the general population and in clinical populations reveal surprisingly high rates of playing with fire or actual firesetting behavior. A single fire has the potential to cause a cascade of serious consequences to the child, family, and the community, some of which may continue forever. Yet, there is limited practical information and advice based on available empirical evidence to help programs or practitioners work effectively with children or adolescents who misuse fire, and their families. This book provides practical guidelines designed to facilitate the clinical assessment and treatment of youthful firesetting behavior based on nearly four decades of research and intervention experience with this population. The topics covered in this book address several important content areas. Initial chapters provide an overview of the significance of the problem, and some lessons learned based on case control, clinical trial, and real-world implementation projects. Recommendations for using screening and assessment measures that evaluate firesetting and general psychosocial issues are included. Several intervention methods are outlined for use with children, caregivers, and families. These methods encompass fire safety education materials and several cognitive-behavioral treatment skills-training procedures that focus on understanding of the fire, affect regulation and self-control, parenting practices, and home-based management programs. The book also includes suggestions to promote professional and program development which reflect on various educational, ethical, legal, collaborative, and community safety considerations. The book’s content is intended to help a diverse array of practitioners understand and target the context in which the misuse of fire occurs.Less

The Body Project is an empirically based eating disorder prevention program that offers young women an opportunity to critically consider the costs of pursuing the ultra-thin ideal promoted in the mass media, and it improves body acceptance and reduces risk for developing eating disorders. Young women with elevated body dissatisfaction are recruited for group sessions in which they participate in a series of verbal, written, and behavioral exercises in which they consider the negative effects of pursuing the thin-ideal. This online resource provides information on the significance of body image and eating disorders, the intervention theory, the evidence base which supports the theory, recruitment and training procedures, solutions to common challenges, and a new program aimed at reducing obesity onset, as well as intervention scripts and participant handouts. It is the only currently available eating disorder prevention program that has been shown to reduce risk for onset of eating disorders and received support in trials conducted by several independent research groups.Less

Shyness and social anxiety are common emotions experienced by children and teenagers. When intense, they often result in the avoidance of social situations and can significantly impair a child's functioning and emotional development. Left untreated in its clinical state, Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a serious condition often lasting into adulthood. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is highly effective in treating adults with SAD and has been successfully adapted for the treatment of youth. This therapist guide presents a group treatment program for adolescents aged 13 to 18 that uses well-tested CBT techniques. In this program, groups of 5 to 7 youths with excessive shyness or social anxiety learn how to cope in social situations. Cognitive restructuring exercises help participants understand their anxiety and re-examine thinking that may contribute to their distress. Other exercises teach social and problem solving skills, and also increase self-esteem and assertiveness. Behavioral exposure exercises give participants the opportunity to practice these skills by systematically confronting them in feared or avoided social situations. This guide offers practical instruction on how to apply this program, as well as information on the theory and research on which it is based. It provides session outlines for adolescent group therapy, including sample dialogues, role-playing scenarios, and homework assignments. It also addresses individual therapy and provides tips for conducting the treatment with children aged 8 to 12.Less

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has shown to be effective in the treatment of childhood OCD. This online Therapist Guide outlines a 12-session CBT-based treatment for OCD that benefits not only children and adolescents, but their families as well. Each session incorporates a family therapy component in addition to individual treatment for the child. It is a combined approach program that educates the child and family about OCD in order to reduce negative feelings of guilt and blame and to normalise family functioning. It also provides guidelines for conducting both imaginal and in vivo exposures, which are techniques at the core of helping children reduce their anxiety. For use with children ages 8 to 17, this online resource is an indispensable tool for clinicians helping children and their families cope with OCD.Less

Combined Parent-Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CPC-CBT), created by Melissa K. Runyon and Esther Deblinger and outlined in this guide, provides an evidence-based intervention aimed at empowering families to develop optimistic outlooks on parenting and peaceful home environments, and to decrease stress experienced both by parents and children. CPC-CBT incorporates elements from empirically supported CBT models for families who have experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence; additionally, CPC-CBT draws on concepts from developmental theory, learning theory, family systems theory, and motivational interviewing. The target population includes children (ages 3-17 years) and their parents/caregivers who have already engaged in or are at-risk for physically abusive behavior towards their children. This online guide is for clinicians, clinical supervisors, administrators, and others who are considering the implementation of CPC-CBT in their agencies with families at-risk for child physical abuse.Less

This workbook for parents includes worksheets and monitoring forms to track progress and reinforce skills learned in group therapy, in order to cope with aggressive behaviour in their children. Evidence-based cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment programs for adults and children have been found to effectively treat aggressive behaviour in children, and this parent workbook is for parents with children who are beginning to show signs of severe aggression and social dysfunction at school. Children who begin to exhibit aggression as pre-adolescents are much more likely to have histories of substance abuse, interpersonal violence, and criminal behavior in their adolescence. By working with their children, parents are able to help target these behaviors before they become dangerous or unmanageable, and this program has been proven to help parents reduce the occurrence of these problems, and to help their children improve their functioning in school. Less

This program is an evidence-based intervention for aggressive behaviour in pre-adolescent children and teaches positive strategies for coping with perceived conflict or threat, as well as an understanding of the participant's feelings and motivations behind inappropriate behaviour. This facilitator guide includes step-by-step instructions for accurately implementing this evidence-based program in the parent's group. There is also a corresponding workbook for parents that includes worksheets and monitoring forms to track progress and reinforce the skills learned in the group sessions.Less

This program is an evidence-based program for dealing with behavioural problems in pre-adolescent children, concentrating on children who are beginning to show signs of severe aggression and social dysfunction at school. Studies have shown that children who display aggressive behaviour have maladaptive coping skills and misperceptions of conflict or threat. This program teaches positive strategies for coping with perceived conflict or threat, as well as an understanding of the participant's feelings and motivations behind inappropriate behaviour. The Coping Power program involves an intervention with aggressive children and a simultaneous program for their parents, to increase positive motivations at home as well as at school. This guide is for the facilitator of the child group, and includes step-by-step instructions for accurately implementing this evidence-based program. There is a corresponding workbook for children, which includes worksheets and exercises to reinforce the skills learned in the group sessions.Less

The experience of childhood trauma can lead to a broad spectrum of long-term psychological consequences, including depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The severity and longevity of these results are a function of a complex individual and universal equation that includes biological and environmental variables. In recognition of the growing need for a manualized treatment that aims to increase youth insight into how an individual’s history of exposure to trauma may relate to current emotional experiences and how these, in turn, may be linked to maladaptive behaviors, cue-centered therapy (CCT), was developed. CCT is a structured, multimodal intervention designed to reduce posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety in children exposed chronically to interpersonal violence. By incorporating diverse psychoeducational approaches with evidence-based treatments for childhood trauma, CCT empowers children to become their own agents of change. By addressing the impact of allostatic load; educating youth and caregivers about the conditioning process that occurs through repeated exposure to trauma; using insight-oriented strategies and visual icons, and a physiological approach; CCT is a unique protocol that builds on the greatest strengths of its predecessors. This manual includes an introduction by the author, Dr. Victor Carrion, that details the history of CCT and discusses posttraumatic stress disorder. Instructions are provided for therapists on how to use this manual, including an outline of the complete course of CCT, individual session outlines, summaries, forms, and take-home assignments.Less

Evidence-based Child Forensic Interviewing addresses the issues regarding the inherent mismatch between the needs of the legal system and the capabilities of young children. This is especially problematic when legal decisions with potentially serious consequences depend on the results of the interview, such as in cases involving eyewitness memory, divorce, and allegations of abuse and neglect. Without accommodations to a child's developmental level, interviews can result in false reports, miscommunication, and misinterpretation, despite an interviewer's best intentions. This online guide presents an innovative approach to close the gap by providing the scaffolding, structure, and guidance children need to perform optimally. It covers the Developmental Narrative Elaboration (DNE) Interview, an evidence-based step-by-step process and set of techniques for forensic contexts designed to help children ages 3-12 accurately tell as much as they can about their experiences and perceptions. The DNE is comprised of a developmentally sensitive core template and optional techniques that can be embedded at the interviewer's discretion as cases unfold. This online resource reviews the relevant research and then, with sample language, transcripts, and suggested activities, details a three-phased interview with examples.Less

Family-based Interpersonal Psychotherapy (FB-IPT) for Depressed Preadolescents presents the rationale and basic principles for interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) and for interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A), a developmental adaptation that is designed to treat adolescents, ages 12 to 18 years, with depression. The heart of this book introduces family-based interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed preadolescents (FB-IPT), a psychosocial treatment for preadolescent depression for children between 7 and 12 years. FB-IPT is conceptually rooted in an interpersonal model of depression and in developmental research on the antecedents of depression in youth. FB-IPT focuses on improving two domains of interpersonal impairment in depressed preadolescents—parent–child conflict and peer impairment—as a means to decrease preadolescents’ depressive symptoms. Stronger interpersonal skills and relationships buffer depressed preadolescents from stressors that arise during this important developmental period. Research shows that preadolescent depression is an important public health concern because it is often a gateway condition that increases the risk for recurrent depression in adolescence. Preteen depression not only interferes with normative social development at a formative period but also results in residual impairments in interpersonal functioning, which may increase risk for recurrent depression into adolescence and adulthood. Effective interventions for depression in the preadolescent period that target family and interpersonal risk factors may reduce risk for depression recurrence in adolescence. Chapters 5 through 17 of this Therapist Guide describe in detail the steps for conducting FB-IPT with depressed preadolescents and their parents.Less

Childhood obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a complex condition that is often accompanied by high levels of family stress and strain. Families of youth with OCD face a unique set of difficulties in that they often are intimately involved in their children’s symptoms. This pattern of responding to OCD, frequently referred to as accommodation, comes in many forms, and for most families, it occurs daily. Research suggests that accommodation is accompanied by increased levels of family distress, anxiety, and conflict, which, when high enough, can undermine successful OCD treatment. Although evidence-based treatments exist for childhood OCD, few protocols offer strategies for treating these more complex family presentations. This program offers an empirically supported approach for managing childhood OCD complicated by poor family functioning. It identifies specific family features that may contribute to treatment nonresponse in childhood OCD, and provides clinicians with an innovative set of strategies for addressing them. By focusing on emotion-regulation strategies and family-problem-solving exercises, families learn to troubleshoot difficult OCD episodes in an effective and supportive manner.Less

One of the main concerns of parents of children with developmental disabilities such as autism is the management of problem behaviour, including aggression, self-injury, and tantrums, which can be obstacles to placing a child in schools or other community settings. Children are unnecessarily isolated and this manual is the result of an evidence-based program that teaches positive skills to parents of young children with disabilities. Many parents feel powerless in the face of their child's disability, and therefore give up trying to change problem behaviour. This 8-week program teaches parents to identify these thoughts, and provides optimistic alternatives. Sessions include how to identify behaviour triggers, and strategies for managing these situations, replacing destructive behaviours, and maintaining a positive outlook on the child's development. It helps parents create a behaviour management strategy to use and how to have a more effective, optimistic attitude. A corresponding Workbook provides forms for monitoring the child's behaviour, homework assignments, and positive reinforcement for parents.Less

Having a child with challenging behaviour can be frustrating and affect the entire family. This Workbook is designed to help parents create a more positive attitude toward a child and carry out effective steps to improve behaviour. The program outlined in this workbook can be tailored to a child's and family's needs and goals. It helps parents to identify what sets off a child's problem behaviour, as well as what a child gets or avoids from misbehaving. It will help parents learn strategies to prevent problems, manage consequences, and teach a child new skills. With the help of a facilitator parents can design a behaviour support plan, learn how to think more positively, and homework assignments will help assess the child's behaviour, apply new strategies, and track the family's progress. Less

It's Only a False Alarm is a workbook for children and adolescents ages 8–17 who are undergoing treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Designed to be used in conjunction with the program outlined in the corresponding Therapist Guide, this online workbook contains easy-to-read psychoeducational material to help children understand their disorder and how to overcome it. It is filled with interactive worksheets and forms, as well as at-home exercises designed to help children relieve their anxiety and manage their OCD-related symptoms. Whether they are fearful of contamination or obsessed with symmetry, children will benefit from the exposure exercises found in this workbook, and that not performing their rituals and habits cannot result in catastrophe. It also includes graphs and an “OCD Thermometer” to provide children with a visual reminder of their progress over time.Less

This online therapist guide is specifically designed for working with adolescents with panic disorder and agoraphobia. It features the program developed at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University and targets patients aged 12-17. It is comprised of 12 sessions to be delivered over an 11-week period. Adolescents learn about the nature of panic and anxiety and how to challenge their panic thoughts. Exposure sessions help them face their fears and stop avoiding situations that cause heightened anxiety. An adaptation chapter addresses how to modify the program for intensive (8 day) treatment, as well as how to tailor the treatment to different ages. Each session includes an optional parent component and an appendix provides handouts for parents. A corresponding online workbook is specifically designed for adolescent use, with easy to understand explanations and teen-friendly formsLess

The RUBI Autism Network has developed and tested a structured parent training manual for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and disruptive behaviors. The manual is based on principles of applied behavior analysis and is designed for therapists to use with parents of children with ASD and co-occurring challenging behaviors, such as tantrums, noncompliance, difficulties with transitions, and aggression. A trained therapist utilizes the manual and parent workbook to guide the parent in applying techniques and tools to help manage the child’s challenging behaviors. The treatment includes 11 Core sessions, 7 Supplemental sessions, a home visit, and follow-up telephone booster sessions. Each of the sessions contains a therapist script, activity sheets, a parent handout, and treatment fidelity checklists. Additionally, accompanying each core session are video vignettes that the therapist uses to demonstrate concepts taught in the session. The videos include 30- to 60-second vignettes demonstrating common parenting mistakes as well as implementation (to varying degrees of success) of the strategies being taught. The treatment is designed to be delivered individually to parents in weekly outpatient visits. Parents are given homework assignments between sessions that focus on applying techniques to specific behaviors.Less

The RUBI Autism Network has developed and tested a structured parent training manual for children with autism spectrum disorder and disruptive behaviors. The manual is based on principles of applied behavior analysis and is designed for therapists to use with parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and co-occurring challenging behaviors, such as tantrums, noncompliance, difficulties with transitions, and aggression. A trained therapist utilizes the manual to guide the parent in applying techniques and tools to help manage the child’s challenging behaviors. The treatment includes 11 Core sessions, 7 Supplemental sessions, a home visit, and follow-up telephone booster sessions. Each of the sessions contains a therapist script, activity sheets, a parent handout, and treatment fidelity checklists. Additionally, accompanying each core session are video vignettes that the therapist uses to demonstrate concepts taught in the session. The videos include 30- to 60-second vignettes demonstrating common parenting mistakes as well as implementation (to varying degrees of success) of the strategies being taught. The treatment manual is designed to be delivered individually to parents in weekly outpatient visits. Parents are given homework assignments between sessions that focus on applying techniques to specific behaviors.Less

Parenting any pre-schooler can be challenging, but when hyperactivity and impulsivity are extreme, parenting requires extraordinary effort and skill. Children who are hyperactive are at risk for developing emotional or behavioral disorders, and research suggests that helping parents to provide firm and consistent limits in a nurturing environment can significantly reduce hyperactivity and associated difficulties. Parenting Hyperactive Preschoolers provides therapists with a 14-week parent training and emotion socialization program that aims to help preschoolers who have symptoms of ADHD by teaching parents new ways of interacting with their children. This clinician's manual outlines each session and includes homework forms and handouts for parents and children. The treatment includes behavior management strategies and tips on emotion regulation, and the program is designed to be conducted in a group setting in 90 minute sessions, which also allows parents to receive support and input from each other, but can be easily adapted to sessions with individual parents.Less