We are approaching a new wave in school psychology.
The change has been a long time coming! Decades of blind support for fashionable interventions and instructional techniques have utilized precious resources and failed to create any significant effects in our student's ultimate trajectories. Our goals for our schools, whether focused on academic growth or a decline in substance abuse, were often undefined and progress went unmeasured. Did we know whether these programs were effective?!
The answer is a resounding, "NO!"
There is a new movement. A movement encouraging us to bridge the gap between research and practice. Clearly the question becomes, "How?" What is your mission statement? In what aspect of your practice do you envision yourself making the strongest commitment to making empirically driven, data-based decisions?
This blog was created by Roxane Nassirpour and Tjasa Korda
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The area of research that has grabbed most of my attention is that of parental involvement. There is so much research confirming that the more parents are involved in their child's schooling, the better their chances are of being academically successful. One of my goals will be to get that point across to the parents I come to contact with once I become a school psychologist. When a child has been classified it should be imprinted in the parents' brain that the efforts to help this child succeed should be COLLABORATIVE. I feel that providing parents with information about Parent Management Training, holding individual sessions with the parents and asking questions about their concerns is a big part in making sure there are continuing the skills they learn at school when they go home. This is the area I want to make the biggest change in.
i think the use of psychopharmacology is one aspect that I will rely on empirical evidence. The use of behavior medication is on the rise especially stimulants for the treatment of ADHD. Consdiering the number of students diagnosed with ADHD I think school psychologists need to be aware and be able to discuss the evidence pointing to the effectiveness of medication combined with behvioral treatments.
I want to be able to help children who have been unwillingly involved within drugs, gangs, or abuse. As I mentioned in class once, I volunteered at my local Boy's and Girl's Club in newark and i witnessed some of the effects some of these harmful factors may have on our children, their academic standing, and their personal life skills and self-esteem. So many children are being prone to these factors because their own parents and family members are involved and they get stuck within the loop hole with no escape. One of my goals will be to implement programs and activities that will be able to help these children escape that loop hole. With these program, they will hopefully find skills and acitivities they would become dedicated too so they can leave those vicious habits and keep themselves from getting invovled within our cruel streets. The programs would also be beneficial for parents, as they would be given their own services and activities to become more invovlement with their child's life, development, and education. Some parents come up with millions of excuses to just not get involved or concerned with what their children are doing. From personal experience, my own aunt and uncle let my 15 year old cousin roam the streets at whatever time without even having to inform them of where he is or what he is doing and with who. This is the number one leading factor that contributes to the drug and gang involvement of our children. Abuse is also very dear to my heart. I would also like to implement programs to help parents and their children overcome and educate themselves about the varying types of abuse. Child advocacy pertaining to drugs, gang involvement and abuse situations is my area of dedication and the one i hope to one day be able to implement the biggest change possible so that all lives can be affected for the betterment of our children and future generations.
If I had to choose a mission statement focused on what I find to be most important and on what I would like to change, I agree with Tahina that parental involvement is at the forefront. Parents, can make such a huge difference in a child's life. I think that as a school psychologist I would like to spend more time with parents helping them to understand the implications of their child's disability and strategies that can be used in the home to help their child succeed. I know this seems farfetched considering many of the circumstances children and parents are faced with, especially in urban areas as well as the huge caseloads that many school psychologist have. Many times parents do not want to be involved or just don't care, or are too embarrassed to admit that they just don't understand. I would like to make it my mission to at least provide the parents with as much information as I can. I think that a lot of people disguise their lack of knowledge with lack of caring and I would like to break through to them. I think that parents have the potential to make the biggest change in a child's life and hopefully I can help them harness these capabilities and put them to good use.
Similiar to Angelica's statment about the overall well-being and treatment of children, more specifically abuse and neglect is what I am most concerned about. The referral process and interventions for children concerning these topics is where I would rely on empirical research, laws, and policies.
I would also heavily concentrate on making sure teachers are more aware of RTI, and the proper referral process for students who may be having difficulty learning because in my school the proper procedures are not very clear or communicated effectively.
Like everyone else, I'm very concerned abut parental involvement. But, more specifically, I'm very interested in childhood anxiety. During my shadowing practicum, I have discussed at least 3 cases of school phobia with my supervisor. And the district is choosing to provide home instruction for these children. There's no effort to get the child back to school. The only empirically proven treatment for anxiety is CBT, which requires the patient to confront his or her fears. Staying at home playing video games all day and being pumped full of antidepressants is not facing your fears. We as school psychologists need to make certain that parents know what is considered good treatment based on research, and often our recommendations are very different from the psychiatrist who is handing out notes for home instruction and prescriptions for Prozac. And, especially if we are working in urban districts where many parents are unable to afford therapy, we need to do some community outreaching to find out the best place for therapy that will work on a sliding scale, or for free. Parents are often times ignorant to their options, and we need to be sure to educate them as well. The more educated they are, the better chance we have for seeing increased involvement.
I was fortunate to go to a conference on RTI and I think if we would be able to properly implement it in schools throughout the U.S. it would be a GIANT step. RTI would greatly reduce the amount of referrals school psychologists receive and most of all it is a data-based driven process to identifying learning disabilities. RTI seeks to prevent academic failure through early intervention, frequent progress measurement, and increasingly intensive research-based instructional interventions for children who continue to have difficulty. In my opinion isn’t that better than waiting for a student to be retained or fail to be considered for educational services?? I am sorry but the discrepancy model is bogus and precious time is being wasted before the student’s problem is even fathomed. The discrepancy model only does a disservice to our students. Early screening and intervention should be the new wave of special education services.
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