Skip to content →

Systemic Interventions Focused on Children

  • special education programs
    • adjustments of curriculum/density of education
    • alternative placement
      • Regional Alternative School
      • Hammitt School/The Baby Fold
    • transition services (shift of focus from education to employment and independent living)
      • vocational rehabilitation programs
        • Illinois Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS)
      • job coaches, sheltered workshops
  • social welfare treatments
    • child protective services
      • Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS)
    • foster care services
    • juvenile court, juvenile detention facilities, juvenile placements
      • Juvenile Court Services
  • psychotherapy
    • family therapy
    • contingency managaement (behavior modification) programs in schools
    • parent training approaches
  • public health programs
    • vaccinations and other child health initiatives

Individual Child Focused Psychological Interventions

  • psychotherapy/counseling
    • forms of psychotherapy
      • play therapy
      • group therapy
      • individual counseling
    • setting: inpatient, group home, out patient
    • theoretical model (How does change occur? How can positive change be facilitated?)
      • “types” of psychotherapy: psychotherapies are based on theoretical models of personality, development, and psychopathology in people; different models lead to different treatment approaches, e.g., “behavioral”, “psychodynamic”
      • psychodynamic/relationship oriented
      • cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)
      • eclectic and specialized treatment approaches
        • transtheoretical, integrative, and wholistic approaches
        • substance abuse treatment, EMDR, DBT
  • evidence of effectiveness (much of the effectiveness literature is based on research with adult populations)
    • Does psychotherapy work? (short answer: “yes” but we have many questions)
      • As measured by customer satisfaction?
      • As measured by therapist rating of symptom improvement?
      • As measured by “objective outcome” (return to work, success in school, etc.)?
    • “Which type of psychotherapy is best for who with what kind of problem?” (we’re still working on this)
      • common factors (shared aspects to all effective therapies)
        • therapist caring/concern, genuineness, warmth, empathy
        • client motivation, commitment to change, resources
      • specific factors (the type of treatment)
    • empirically supported treatments/interventions
      • “manualized treatments”, treatment fidelity, and dissemination of treatments and treatment data
    • availability of treatments, cost of treatments, acceptability of treatments

Medical/Biological Focused Treatments

  • psychopharmacology
    • medications affecting the central nervous system
      • cognitive enhancing medications
        • CNS stimulants
      • antidepressant medications
      • anxiolytic medications
      • mood stabilizing medications
        • Lithium
        • anticonvulsant medications
        • antipsychotic medications
      • antipsychotic medications
    • medications affecting peripheral systems
      • medication for enuresis
    • regulation of medications approved for use with children and adolescents
      • U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
      • difficulties with medical research on children and adolescents
      • “off label” use of psychotropic medication with children and adolescents
      • concerns about the use of psychotropic medications with children
  • other biological focused treatments
    • biological treatments usually only seen in adult populations
      • “shock treatment”, EIS (electrically induced seizures), ECT (electric convulsive seizures)
      • psychosurgery
        • lobotomies
        • localized ablations of CNS tissue
      • transcranial magnetic stimulation
    • biofeedback (often/usually provided by nonphysicians)
      • urine alarm treatments of enuresis
      • biofeedback treatments of stress/anxiwety
      • neurofeedback treatment of ADD/ADHD
  • ancillary medical treatments
    • speech and language therapy
    • physical and occupational therapies
    • music therapy
  • research on medical treatments of behavior disorders
    • placebo effects
      • double blind treatment studies
    • “treatment as usual” [TAU] as a control group
    • ethical issues
      • conflicts of interests & commercial considerations
Skip to toolbar