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3C Institute

MULTIMEDIA STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE CHILD TREATMENT EFFECTS

NIMH
ID: 5R44MH070171-03
PI: MELISSA DEROSIER, PHD
TERM: 08/05 – 07/07

The quality of a child’s mental health and social functioning are highly interconnected. A number of childhood psychiatric disorders include social skill deficits or restricted social relations as a key diagnostic feature. Research supports the significant and unique contribution of social problems in the emergence of a myriad of later negative outcomes, including heightened risk for psychiatric disorders and use of mental health services. Mental health problems and social relations can influence one another over time, with negative functioning in one area fostering worsening functioning in the other area. This cycle can be ameliorated, if not broken, with the application of targeted, structured, cognitive-behavioral skills training interventions and intervention efficacy is enhanced when training extends to multiple settings and includes practice outside of the treatment sessions.

During Phase I of this project, the prototype of the Interact! product was developed. One unit of the intervention was created and prototype materials were tested for feasibility with mental health professionals in the community and school and elementary school teachers. Feasibility of the product was successfully established and results provided substantial support for continued development, as well as essential constructive feedback to inform the direction of that development.

Phase II funding was obtained to continue the research and development of the program. The completed intervention, renamed LifeStories for Kids, is a school-based, storytelling intervention for elementary school students designed to increase life skills and character education. Results of research conducted in local schools found that children who received the intervention as part of their classroom curriculum demonstrated increases in social behavior as compared to students in a control group.

The finalized Lifestories for Kids product is an easy-to-use intervention that helps teachers guide their students in character education and learning prosocial and emotional skills by combining through storytelling and developmentally appropriate activities. The intervention is available for purchase at www.selmediainc.com.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.