title: Self-regulation strategies of children with emotional disturbance.
abstract: Children with emotional disturbance frequently have difficulty regulating their classroom behaviors. Many have co-occurrence of other disabilities, such as sensory processing problems, which compound difficulties in school participation. This exploratory project evaluated the 8-week-long use of the Alert Program within the classroom setting for seven children with emotional disturbance. Five children with emotional disturbance served as a control group. Self-regulation, behavioral adjustments, and sensory processing skills as reported by the children and teachers were evaluated. Changes from pretest to posttest indicated that children who received the Alert Program demonstrated a small improvement on all measures while performance of the control group remained relatively constant or decreased. These preliminary results indicate programs that target self-regulation skills may be useful in helping to improve self-regulation of children with emotional disturbance.
authors.affiliation: Occupational Therapy, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78229-3900, USA. barnesk@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: Karin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.forename: Alison J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Heidi B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Schoenfeld
authors.forename: Steven V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Owen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011580:Psychological Techniques; D012574:Schools; D020377:Self Efficacy; D016896:Treatment Outcome