Expanding Technical Assistance Consultation to Public Schools: District-Wide Evaluation of Instructional and Behavior Support Practices for Students with Developmental Disabilities

SUMMARY

We describe consultation to a public school district in the form of a systems-wide evaluation of instructional and behavior support practices for students with developmental disabilities. The evaluation targeted (1) the financial costs of educating students out-of-district, (2) an analysis of a representative sample of Individualized Educational Plans, and (3) interviews with and a questionnaire completed by teachers. The primary objective of the evaluation was to determine practice standards in the public school district and to make recommendations to improve service delivery. The format of the evaluative model, respective findings, suggested remedies, and implications for large-scale public school consultation are presented.     

A School-Based,Primary Violence Prevention Program

Summary

This article presents findings from an evaluative study of a multidisciplinary violence prevention project jointly administered by a family practice clinic and junior high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The project team hypothesized that an intervention established on a public health model and aimed at enhancing adolescent self-esteem through cognitive and behavioral strategies would reduce the tendency to engage in violence of participating students. The project united health care personnel, social workers and legal profession-als in an effort to teach students specific cognitive tools for the reduction and avoidance of violent encounters. The experimental results do not reveal Project effectiveness in boosting self-esteem indicators among students, although the Project docs seem to have contributed to the control of students' behavioral aggression. Although a clear relationship between self-esteem and violent behavior is not demonstrated by the experimental results, the project study suggests that school-based, anti-violence programs based on a public health model can have a positive effect in the reduction of physical and verbal aggression among adolescents.     

A Survey of Behavior Analysis and Behavioral Consultation Courses in School Psychology: Implications for Training School Psychologists

All 216 doctoral and specialist level school psychology training programs were mailed a seven question survey to determine how much behavioral consultation and behavior analysis course work school psychology students are offered. One hundred and twenty-eight surveys were returned, yielding a return rate of 58.26%. The results indicated that almost all programs offer didactic courses in consultation (98.79%) and behavior analysis/behavior modification (91.52%). The percentage of practicum devoted to behavioral consultation and behavior analysis/modification was considerably less (about 25% for each) than other subject areas. The results are discussed within the context of training needed to meet the needs of practitioners in the areas of behavioral consultation and behavior analysis/behavior modification.     

Examining the Efficacy of School-Based Consultation: Recommendations for Improving Outcomes

SUMMARY

Schools are faced with the difficult task of educating students who present diverse learning and behavioral challenges. To meet student needs, schools tap the expertise of a variety of specialists who provide services through “pull-out” programs or consultation to general educators. Unfortunately, neither strategy has proved effective to date with respect to children and youth who present significant social behavior problems. A brief review of the literature points to the shortcomings as linked to multiple treatments with varying outcomes and inconsistent implementation of best practices. One option to address the challenges schools face in light of ineffective practices to date is the development of school-wide systems of positive behavior support (PBS). Effective implementation of school-wide systems of PBS will require moving the consultation process from individual cases to working with teams of educators. Key skills and possible measurement strategies to develop and sustain school-wide consultation efforts are discussed.     

Enhancing the Behavioral and Mental Health Services Within School-Based Contexts

ABSTRACT

Recent health care reform provides many new opportunities to expand mental health and behavioral support to students in schools and school–community partnerships. Through newly available funding sources, as well as expanded legislative initiatives, school psychologists can advocate for and become leaders in delivering universal programming, tiered mental health supports, and formalized collaborative efforts with community agencies. The authors highlight the application of tiered levels of services, with current practice samples, designed to address students' mental and behavioral health. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Training School Psychologists in Behavior Support Consultation

SUMMARY

Although school consultation began as a means of providing assistance to individual teachers on a voluntary basis, it has evolved into a stand-alone service regulated by state and federal law. In order to meet the demand for increased accountability in the services they provide, school psychologists and other prereferral intervention team members have expressed a need to develop skills in two key areas: (a) selecting interventions that are conceptually relevant and therefore likely to be effective in responding to children's behavior problems, and (b) providing teachers with the resources and support needed to ensure successful plan implementation. In this paper, we describe various strategies that have been shown to be effective at addressing each of these issues by drawing on recent research in school consultation and applied behavior analysis. Considerations surrounding the use of these strategies by school consultants are discussed, as are implications for increasing the effectiveness and accountability of school consultation services.     

Preschool Teacher Support Through Class-Wide Intervention

Abstract

Preparing professionals for class-wide consultation has a significant role in achieving goals associated with recent legislation and reform initiatives. Class-wide interventions are used to target achievement and social learning, are under a teacher's control and responsibility, and build on basic classroom interactions, routines, and resources. However, teachers may require considerable contextual appraisal and support from consultants. The purpose of this paper is to describe a teacher- support program evolving from Head Start consultations by school psychology students. Implications for training and practice are discussed.     

The School Bully: Assessing the Problem, Developing Interventions, and Future Research Directions

A growing concern exists among educators regarding the prevalence and impact of bullying behavior in the public schools. This behavior has serious repercussions for school climate and school safety in general. In addition, strong indicators suggest bullying behavior appears to be a precursor for community violence. Studies indicate that educators are not fully aware of the prevalence or the seriousness of bullying behavior in schools. A need exists to assess systematically the extent to which bullying behavior may be present in a given school. The critical features of several bullying assessment instruments were examined. In response to the growing concern regarding bullying, a large number of programs designed to address bullying are emerging. However, it is recommended that before selecting a program three criteria should be considered: the program (a) is supported by research; (b) is based on sound behavioral principles; and (c) emphasizes teaching prosocial behavior to replace bullying behavior.     

A Self-Modeling Intervention for High School Students with Public Speaking Anxiety

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effectiveness of self-modeling as an intervention for public speaking anxiety. The participants were six high school students with elevated levels of self-reported public speaking anxiety. Students presented public speeches to randomly selected peer audiences. Direct observations measured the behavioral manifestations of public speaking anxiety. In the intervention phase, students viewed self-modeling videotapes that were edited to remove speech dysfluencies and behavioral symptoms of speech anxiety. The self-modeling tapes depicted only adaptive, exemplary behavior with an edited-in audience feature making it appear that the students were producing a fluent speech to an audience of their peers. All of the participants evidenced substantial decreases in behavioral symptoms of speech anxiety and these changes were maintained throughout follow-up. The range of the participants' effect sizes was 2.7 to 4.9. Self-report measures of state anxiety and confidence as a speaker were used to assess additional effects of treatment. For all participants, there were also substantial decreases in self-reported public speaking anxiety and state anxiety from baseline to follow-up. A post-treatment interview revealed high social validity and self-reported generalization of treatment.     

Barriers to treatment success in behavioral consultation: Current limitations and future directions

Behavioral consultation is a prominent indirect service model in the practice of psychology in the schools. Despite some empirical support for the use of behavioral consultation strategies, consultants frequently face a number of barriers to implementation of treatment in practice. This article outlines a number of these barriers in behavioral consultation, including the lack of standardization of consultation, lack of specific training of consultants, little or no consultee (teacher) training, problems surrounding target behavior identification, and external constraints to consultation. Each of these areas is described along several dimensions that need to be addressed in future research.     

Self-observation and behavior change: Applications to academic and adjustment problems through behavioral consultation

Self-observation as a behavior change technique was implemented through behavioral consultation in a public elementary school system. The self-observation procedures were introduced to two subjects with academic problems (assignment completion) and two subjects with behavioral problems (disruptive talk and interruptions, respectively). In each of the four cases, self-observation resulted in improvement in client behavior. Results are discussed within the context of previous methodological issues in the self-observation literature and the relevance of self-observation as a therapeutic tool in school settings.     

The relationship variable in behavioral consultation

Behavioral consultation has traditionally been conceptualized as a scientific-technological exchange process where the primary goal is the transfer of information. Perceived reluctance of school personnel to use behavioral techniques has been seen as a special problem of educational settings. However, current understanding of this reluctance has emerged from the treatment adherence literature which stresses the complexity of adherence in clinical settings. One important issue which has emerged is the critical importance of the consultation relationship. While behavioral consultation has utilized an expert model focused on client behavior and problem solving, the efficacy of a more collaborative consultation style has been recommended. Behavioral consultants need to attend to factors such as communication strategies that facilitate shared responsibility as well as to understand consultees' explanations for their problems and their treatment expectations. Such skills need to be incorporated directly into the education of behavioral consultants along with behavioral technology if the behavioral model is to be disseminated widely into educational practice.     

The problem: American education the solution: Use behavior analytic technology

In spite of numerous demonstrations that America's youth can be effectively educated with behavior analytic teaching techniques, few of the country's children are benefiting from the technology. In addition scholarly reviews of effective teaching strategies have often omitted reference to behavior analysis. One way to look at this problem is as a two-step operation. First, it is necessary to determine procedures that work; second it is necessary to devise strategies for effective dissemination. The present issue of JOBE (Vol. 1, No. 3, Sept. 1991) contains the recommendations of six outstanding behavioral educators as to how to deal with the dissemination problem. The initial article by Pumroy and McIntire describes the activities of an organization which trains school psychologists and teachers to use behavioral procedures and advocates for the techniques with a number of audiences. Next, Engelmann suggests that the public have more control over school activities and that legal action be taken against irresponsible administrative decisions. Hall advocates for less labor-intensive procedures and the sale of curricular materials based on behavioral principles. Binder proposes that dissemination of the technology become a private endeavor that responds to consumer needs. Rosenfield describes a collaborative model of consultation that increases treatment adherence. Finally, Albers and Greer describe research that isolates a key teacher behavior that results in greater academic proficiency.     

Evaluating programs in applied settings through behavioral consultation

A behavioral consultation school psychology service model is presented which provides a vehicle for services and communication of process and outcome measures in program evaluation research. Within the context of the problem-solving perspective of applied behavior analysis, the consultation model (a) promotes process and outcome evaluation across a wide variety of settings, situations, and time; (b) leads to use of an applied research technology with wide applicability in educational settings; and (c) provides a communication technology for the program evaluation process through a four-stage problem-solving strategy. It is argued that the professional behavioral school psychologist can provide technical expertise to function as a system change agent within this evaluation model.     

Organizational school psychology: Issues and considerations

School psychologists have been encouraged to become actively involved in facilitating organizational change in public schools. Activities such as organization development, administrative-centered consultation, training of multidisciplinary teams, program planning, and program evaluation have been considered as important aspects of school psychology. However, when the practice of school psychology at the organizational level of public schools is considered as a distinct area, a range of conceptual and practical issues become apparent: (a) What is the nature and scope of organizational-level practice of school psychology? (b) Under what conditions may this kind of professional effort be useful, to whom, in what ways? (c) What are the knowledge and skills necessary for effective organizational-level practice? These issues are addressed in this article through delineation of the emerging area of “organizational school psychology (OSP),” an approach to school psychology practice which complements more established approaches that focus directly on the individual child or on groups of children.     

Behavioral Telehealth Consultation with Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In this study, desktop video teleconferencing was used to facilitate behavioral consultation at a distance with three parents of school‐age children with autism spectrum disorders. Parents were supported via desktop video teleconferencing as they conducted functional analyses and learned to implement an antecedent manipulation strategy, functional communication training, and a consequence‐based strategy. Parents then conducted a brief multi‐element treatment comparison to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of each intervention strategy on their child's challenging behavior. The results of this study provide additional support to previous research suggesting that a telehealth model of behavioral consultation may be an effective way to assist parents of children with autism spectrum disorders address challenging behavior that disrupts family routines. Suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The ecology of physical activity and sport: Merging science and practice

Abstract

A focus on the ecology of physical activity and sport will merge science and practice within the field of sport psychology. To support this contention, this paper identifies shortcomings of prominent theories within sport psychology by grouping them into meta-theoretical categories labeled dispositional-biological, cognitive behavioral, cognitive-phenomenological, and social-comtructionist. The solution to these shortcomings is an ecological meta-theory that definer the field of sport psychology as the study of how individuals encounter their physical activity and sport environments. Analysis and intervention of this targeted subject matter can be at the physiological, interpersonal, interpersonal, community, and/or institutional and public policy level. A meta-theory that defines ecological information within physical activity in sport as the primary subject matter of study and intervention will develop an autonomous field of study and practice.     

Differences between informants about type a,anger, and social support and the relationship with blood pressure

Abstract

In a study on the influence of different natural environments on self-perception and that of significant others, behavioral manifestations of Type A, Anger, and Social Support were assessed. It was hypothesized that due to different environmental demands, participants will be perceived as displaying differences in Type A behavior, anger, and social support at home and at work. Participants were 45 university employees, constituting a convenience sample. Assessment included Type A Structured Interview scores of participants and questionnaire scores for Type A, anger, and social support of participants who were also evaluated by their spouses and work supervisors. Other risk factors for coronary heart disease (i.e., blood pressure, smoking, previous heart condition, being sedentary, and family history) and their relationships with Type A, anger, and social support were also examined.

Participants and spouses agreed significantly on all measures, whereas participants and work supervisors agreed only on Type A behavior. Spouses' and work supervisors' evaluations of the participants' behavior were not or only marginally associated. Multiple regression analysis showed that the level of disagreement between the different informants with respect to Type A and social support were associated with elevated blood pressure. These results suggest that the perception of Vpe A behavior, anger, and social support may be situationally determined.     

School Psychology: Training Individuals for One of the Best Kept Secrets in Professional Psychology

Abstract

School psychology training at the doctoral level is discussed. Given the increasing diversity in the schools as well as the varied education and mental health needs of the population, school psychology training is necessarily broad, involving traditional skills such as assessment, intervention, consultation, and counseling, all of which are taught within a context of a changing school population with changing needs. Because there is compulsory education, school psychologists’ interface with a broad cross-section of individual children, their parents, and their teachers. Moreover, school psychological practice is not limited to schools, as doctoral school psychologists are health service providers; many of these individuals work in other settings for which they are trained to provide services. The complexities and challenges of training school psychologists within this broad agenda effectively across domains are discussed.