Abstract
The academic chapter contains five essays, covering a number of topics of core and specialist interest in clinical psychology. The first is a critical discussion of the differences between Gentle Teaching and applied behavioural analysis as interventions used with people with learning disabilities whose behaviour is a challenge to services. The second essay is a discussion of the applicability of cognitive behavioural techniques to child and adolescent psychological problems. This includes an overview of the nature of child and adolescent problems and the rationale of applying different cognitive-behavioural techniques to them. It concludes with a review of recent studies which examine the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural interventions with this client group. The older adults essay discusses issues in providing group therapies for cognitively intact and impaired older adults. Process variables, which are assumed to be age-independent, are discussed prior to a consideration of those areas of groupwork which are unique to older adults. The neuropsychology essay concerns the potential for clinical neuropsychology to contribute to the assessment of fragile X syndrome, and discusses a number of domains to which neuropsychology could contribute. The final essay concerns the impact on children of having a sibling with learning disabilities, and discusses common methodological flaws in this area of research prior to critically reviewing recent studies of relationships between children and siblings with learning disabilities.