Psychological behaviorism's reading therapy program: parents as reading therapists for their children's reading disability.

The study presents data on the effectiveness of a parent-administered behavioral reading therapy program. Ten parents administered the therapy program to their second- to fourth-grade children with reading disability. All 10 children received 70 therapy sessions (30 minutes per session), with 5 of the 10 children receiving approximately 51 additional sessions, for a total of 121 sessions. Parents were able to administer the program effectively, and the children participated in an enthusiastic manner. Detailed records from the therapy sessions showed a high degree of mastery of the reading materials, and the children also showed significant and clinically meaningful improvements on standardized reading measures. Although the results must be viewed cautiously given the absence of a control group, the potential of the parent-administered reading therapy program for the remediation of reading disability seems good.

Sexually abused and nonabused children's conceptions of personal body safety.

This study compared characteristics of abused and nonabused children's conceptions about personal body safety. A projective type vignette describing a personal body safety violation was read to 25 abused children entering a treatment program in eastern Washington and 25 nonabused children matched on sex, age, and grade in school. The children were asked questions about the vignette incident, and responses were compared between the abused and nonabused children. Significant differences were obtained between abused and nonabused children's conceptions of personal body safety with regard to their definitions of sexual abuse, descriptions of violators, and perceptions of consequences for the violator. Few significant differences were observed regarding conceptions of the victim, and no differences were observed on responses to two control vignettes depicting violations of traffic and school safety rules. Comparisons are made between both abused and nonabused children's understandings of the phenomenon. In addition, suggestions are offered for incorporating this information into sexual abuse prevention and treatment programs as well as future research.

Comparison of programs for teaching personal safety skills to preschoolers.

We compared the relative effectiveness of two educational approaches for teaching personal safety skills with 100 preschoolers. A behavioral skills training program was compared with a feelings-based program, which instructs children to trust their feelings when making safety decisions. Children's abilities to discriminate between appropriate- and inappropriate-touch requests, their prevention skills, and levels of emotional distress were assessed before, immediately, and one month after program participation. Parents and teachers were surveyed regarding children's reactions. Compared with a control presentation, both programs were effective in enhancing children's knowledge and prevention skills without making them fearful, suggesting that preschool children can benefit from such programs. However, children in the feelings-based program had difficulty recognizing the appropriateness of certain touch requests, suggesting that this approach may have limited utility with preschool-age children.