Descriptive Analysis of Functional Behavioral Assessments for Students Who Display Challenging Behaviors

Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) has become an integral component in schools for addressing students’ challenging behaviors within a school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) approach and under the individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA). There have been literally hundreds of studies conducted on various aspects of FBA including methodologies and participants; and many literature reviews have been undertaken.  However, an unanswered question is how necessary and sufficient are complicated, multi-faceted FBA experimental procedures to determine function and an intervention for students who display challenging behaviors? Two previous reviews (Common et al., 2017; Maag, 2018) that focused on students with high incidence disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, ADHD) or those at-risk had more included studies with students at-risk than with any disability or mental health condition at all.  Therefore, the purpose of this review is to describe and analyze the need for educators to perform FBAs prior to developing an individual intensive intervention for students who display challenging behaviors but without a high incidence disability based on information from those two reviews. Keywords: functional behavioral assessment, at-risk, challenging behaviors DOI: 10.7176/JEP/12-14-01 Publication date:May 31st 202

Characteristics and Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers toward Individuals with Mental Illness

Mental health in children and adults has always been a controversial topic, however, recent mass shootings in schools have heightened the concern of many and raise questions for how to interact with the mentally ill.  Schools, have the capacity to be one of the key stakeholders in delivering services to students with mental health concerns, therefore it is critical to understand the dispositions of teachers toward these students to ensure that they understand the needs of these students. The purpose of this study is to examine specific characteristic of preservice teachers’ attitudes towards individuals with mental illnesses. The study sample consisted of 173 preservice teachers enrolled in a four-year teacher education program at a public research university located in the southeastern United States.  Results indicated that four demographic variables contributed to preservice teacher’s attitudes on the Community Attitudes toward Mental Illness (CAMI) measure and its various subscales: political orientation, knowing someone with a mental illness, and believing ADHD and ASD were mental illnesses.  Implications for future research are discussed. Keywords: Mental health, teacher preparation, emotional disturbance, EB

Accounting for predator species identity reveals variable relationships between nest predation rate and habitat in a temperate forest songbird.

Nest predation is the primary cause of nest failure in most ground-nesting bird species. Investigations of relationships between nest predation rate and habitat usually pool different predator species. However, such relationships likely depend on the specific predator involved, partly because habitat requirements vary among predator species. Pooling may therefore impair our ability to identify conservation-relevant relationships between nest predation rate and habitat. We investigated predator-specific nest predation rates in the forest-dependent, ground-nesting wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix in relation to forest area and forest edge complexity at two spatial scales and to the composition of the adjacent habitat matrix. We used camera traps at 559 nests to identify nest predators in five study regions across Europe. When analyzing predation data pooled across predator species, nest predation rate was positively related to forest area at the local scale (1000 m around nest), and higher where proportion of grassland in the adjacent habitat matrix was high but arable land low. Analyses by each predator species revealed variable relationships between nest predation rates and habitat. At the local scale, nest predation by most predators was higher where forest area was large. At the landscape scale (10,000 m around nest), nest predation by buzzards Buteo buteo was high where forest area was small. Predation by pine martens Martes martes was high where edge complexity at the landscape scale was high. Predation by badgers Meles meles was high where the matrix had much grassland but little arable land. Our results suggest that relationships between nest predation rates and habitat can depend on the predator species involved and may differ from analyses disregarding predator identity. Predator-specific nest predation rates, and their relationships to habitat at different spatial scales, should be considered when assessing the impact of habitat change on avian nesting success

Reproductive success of the wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix varies across Europe

Differences in population trends across a species’ breeding range are ultimately linked to variation in demographic rates. In small songbirds, demographic rates related to fecundity typically have strong effects on population trends. Populations of a forest songbird, the wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix, have been declining in many but not all regions of the European breeding range. We investigated if clutch size, hatching rate, nest survival and number of fledglings vary across Europe, and if nest survival is related to differences in the regionally dominant nest predator class (birds versus mammals). From 2009 to 2020, we monitored 1896 nests and used cameras at a subsample of 645 nests in six study regions: the United Kingdom (mid-Wales, Dartmoor, the New Forest), Germany (Hessen), Switzerland (Jura mountains) and Poland (Białowieża National Park). Number of fledglings was lowest in the New Forest (1.43 ± CI 0.23), intermediate in Jura (2.41 ± 0.31) and Białowieża (2.26 ± 0.24) and highest in mid-Wales (3.02 ± 0.48) and Dartmoor (2.92 ± 0.32). The reason for low reproductive success in the New Forest, Jura and Białowieża was low nest survival, and large clutch sizes in Białowieża did not compensate for high nest losses. High reproductive success in mid-Wales and Dartmoor was due to high nest survival and large clutch sizes. Overall predation rates were similar everywhere despite variation between the regions in the dominant nest predator class. Unsuccessful nests in mid-Wales were mainly predated by birds; in Dartmoor, the New Forest, Hessen and Jura similarly by birds and mammals; and in Białowieża exclusively by mammals. Regional reproductive success does not match the population trends recently reported for the wood warbler in the six study regions (i.e. high reproduction ≠ positive trend). Annual survival may be a decisive factor, but it is difficult to quantify for a nomadic species such as the wood warbler that rarely returns to the same breeding locations

Behavior management : from theoretical implications to practical applications

xix, 437 p. : il.; 24 cm

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Depression: Review and Implications for School Personell [sic]

Depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders among school-age youths. As such, school personnel should play an important role in the identification/assessment, and treatment of depression and related problems in school. School-based treatment of depression is especially relevant for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and learning disabilities (LD) because they may be at a higher risk than their non-disabled peers of displaying depressive symptomatology. Cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBls) have shown promise as an evidence-based treatment for childhood and adolescent depressive disorders. This article focuses on how CBI techniques can be used by school personnel under the proper clinical supervision for reducing students\u27 depressive symptomatology. First, common CBI techniques are described. Second, empirical studies using CBI to treat children and adolescents who are depressed are reviewed. Finally, implications for using these techniques in a collaborative effort among school psychologists; counselors, and special educators in an ethical and valid manner are presented