Book review: Evidence-Based Interventions for Children with Challenging Behavior (2014)

Book review: Evidence-Based Interventions for Children with Challenging Behavior (2014)

This text is written in really simple language, and balances the practical needs of practitioners with evidence-based intervention techniques. For college students, this text provides a great overview of a range of childhood disorders- highly recommended for child development courses. And not only that, it will provide parents with some key tips on how to manage a range of childhood emotions and challenging behaviours.


My psychological perspective:
Challenging behaviours in children and adolescence is one of my special interest areas in psychological practice. I found this text particularly useful as a quick reference guide (quick incidence rates, guidelines and evidence based treatment approaches for common disorders).  Childhood disorders are more common than we think, and the number of parents seeking help for these problems are disproportionate to the incidence of such problems.

There are snipits based on different evidence-based interventions giving practitioners, funding bodies and parents a good idea about what is involved and the effectiveness of such programs. I can only judge the accuracy of approaches that I've been trained in, but the presenting information about Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Triple P Positive Parenting Program, . The descriptions are brief but do give an insight into what the programs involve. As opposed to other training manual, this text is quite practical and even provides details of how to get trained in these approaches. The benefit of presenting all these evidence based approaches is really because there isn't a one size fit all approach. There are a few evidence based programs not available in Australia which has shown promise.

Finally, the book presents some core strategies. Although I have found that these strategies can be applied better with practitioner support, through role plays and active problem solving, the strategies presented here give parents a great idea of how to start using the strategies of time out, modelling, problem analysis, progress monitoring, etc.  (Not so useful was the large number of pages dedicated to showing you how to graph in excel, this is not a computing text after all and many practitioners I know are actually mac uses). Nevertheless, the book has inspired me to write a few more case studies. What I think the text does lack is a focus on third wave CBT interventions, which deals with empowering parents to be mindful while appling strategies.

If you are a parent of a child suffering from challenging behaviours, please give my clinic a call, and I will be happy to meet with you to discuss your concerns. The clinic in located on the Gold Coast.

If you are a psychology university student on the Gold Coast, and would like to work shadow me in delivering Triple P, please contact me.

My Christian perspective: 
I would not discount the potential of children.  I have seen how these interventions have worked. Based on some of the theories presented in this book, I have seen children develop into leaders, and become really helpful around the household. But there is something missing in this text. From my Christian perspective, I have to note that physical, and emotional development are useful, but so is spiritual development. I would still encourage clinicans and parents to investigate the options listed in the book and also adapt these to include a focus on moral development and spiritual growth.

My overall rating: 

Excellent
This is a very useful resource or a decent use of time. 

 

Really very useful for clinicians and college students. A great resource to keep on the bookshelf as a quick reference guide.

This book is available from Springer, Amazon and other online retailers.

I was provided with a review copy of this book but was not otherwise influenced in my review.