Broaching the Subjects of Race,Ethnicity, and Culture During the Counseling Process

The authors define broaching as the counselor's ability to consider how sociopolitical factors such as race influence the client's counseling concerns. The counselor must learn to recognize the cultural meaning clients attach to phenomena and to subsequently translate that cultural knowledge into meaningful practice that facilitates client empowerment, strengthens the therapeutic alliance, and enhances counseling outcomes. A continuum of broaching behavior is described, and parallels are drawn between the progression of broaching behavior and the counselor's level of racial identity functioning.     

Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Young Children: An Intervention Model and Case Series

This article presents an intervention model for young children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The intervention, designed to reduce compulsive behavior and improve parenting practices, was tested using a multiple baseline design with 7 children (M = 6 years old; 57% female) in which participants were randomly assigned to 1, 2, or 3 weeks of baseline (i.e., no treatment). All children were diagnosed with OCD using a semi-structured diagnostic interview. Baseline and weekly ratings of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms and family accommodation were obtained. In addition, at pre- and post-treatment and 1-month follow-up, independent evaluators and/or parents completed measures assessing the severity and impact of OC symptoms and child and family functioning. Findings revealed that participants had a 33–66% reduction in OC symptoms (as measured by the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale; CYBOCS) at posttreatment and 6 of the 7 children were rated as treatment responders on the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) Scale. At the 1-month follow-up, participants had a 17–82% reduction in OC symptoms. Treatment was also effective in reducing parental accommodation of child OC behaviors. Overall treatment satisfaction was high and parents found most core treatment ingredients (e.g., psychoeducation, exposure and ritual prevention, contingency management) very helpful. Implications for further developing and testing psychosocial treatments for young children are discussed.     

First Graders Receive Instruction in Homonym Detection and Meaning Articulation: The Effect of Explicit Metalinguistic Awareness Practice on Beginning Readers

An experiment examined whether beginning readers can successfully learn to detect and define homonyms, and whether this ability correlates with vocabulary and/or phonological awareness. First graders received ambiguity instruction involving homonyms in isolation, in riddles, and in text. A control group received reading lessons without a metalinguistic component. Results showed that a very brief training program was effective in teaching students to identify multiple meanings of homonyms in isolation. No correlation existed between the ability to learn about homonyms and pretest oral language ability, indicating that this instruction is appropriate for all learners.