The current study assessed the effectiveness of a training package, delivered in the form of a manual, to teach a parent to increase the variety and amount of food consumed by her son. The participant was a 5-year-old boy with Pervasive Developmental Disorder and limited food consumption. A changing criterion design across two variables, variety of food and quantity of food, was used. Results were that the parent who used the manual, with limited assistance from the experimenter, did succeed in increasing food variety and quantity of target foods.

Many Christian writers point to God through their fiction without openly evangelizing. The images their words evoke lift their secular and religious readers' heads, for God is reflected in their use of language, the emotions they describe, and the actions of their characters. The preface and short stories in this collection aim to show that God's presence can be felt even when people are suffering due to human decisions and mistakes. He is with His creations in the midst of their pain to impart hope when they need it most.

This thesis consists of a preface and twenty-one original short stories. The preface examines the differences between creative nonfiction, autobiography, and memoir. The twenty-one interrelated stories included are autobiographical in nature, in some ways memoirs and in some ways creative nonfiction. The over-all theme of the collection explores one character's journey of self-discovery and transformation.