School psychologists have knowledge of principles and research related to resilience and risk factors in learning and mental health, services in schools and communities to support multi tiered prevention, and empirically supported strategies for effective crisis response. School psychologists, in collaboration with others, demonstrate skills to promote services that enhance learning, mental health, safety, and physical well being through protective and adaptive factors and to implement effective crisis preparation, response, and recovery. (2010 National Association of School Psychology standards )
Demonstration & Evidence of Knowledge: Training in this domain was received through the following courses and internship experience: School Psychology Pro-seminar (PSY 603), Practicum (PSY 749) and Internship I & II (PSY 750 & PSY 751). School Psychology Pro-seminar (PSY 603) provided theoretical and practical understanding about the field of school psychology. In this class, the course focused on historical influences upon the field of school psychology, ethical considerations, and a school psychologist’s roles in the areas of assessment, diagnostics, consultation, counseling, and interventions. Practicum (749) Includes weekly seminar in which students present and discuss clinical and consultation cases, review assessment results and work as a team to develop data based intervention strategies. Internship I &II (PSY 750 & 751) my internship within the VSN School District provides training within all aspects of school psychology, and provides valuable experience with services that enhanced skills in assessment, intervention and consultation and learning issues.
Demonstration & evidence of professional competency: As evidence of professional competency, I have included work samples from my courses. The first sample is a bilingual counseling case from Practicum (PSY 749) underlining best practices when working as a team to develop data based intervention strategies. In this sample, the student is classified with an emotional disturbance and is referred for mandated counseling. M is 9 years old, born and raised in Haiti and experienced a traumatic event four years ago. He lost his home along with his family and had to migrate to NY. The student exhibits inappropriate behavior and immature behaviors such as tantrums, hitting, and impulsivity. The school psychologists had provide direct counseling, behavioral coaching, and indirect interventions for students who experience mental health problems that impair learning and/or socialization. The student experienced post-traumatic stress and exhibited attention seeking and disruptive behavior in the classroom. In collaboration with school personnel, parents, and student, it was decided that M will be given a task or directions (ex. being seated at his desk) within 1 minute and remain on task for a minimum of 20 minutes independently with no more than 2 prompts. Second, when presented with a problem (non-preferred task, frustrating situation, criticism/correction), M will accurately determine the size of the problem (big problem, little problem) and determine the appropriate emotional response (take a break, talk with teacher, take a deep breath, replace frustration with good thoughts, etc.) and return to task at hand. According to school personnel, the student is showing improvement at home and classroom.
The second sample is a FBA/BIP from Internship (750 & 751). In this case, I use data from the student's school record along with information from a parent meeting. The behavior intervention plan cites proper strategies to intervene when behavior is interfering with learning. This behavior intervention plan for J focuses on techniques implemented to reduce inappropriate behaviors and work avoidance in the school setting. Some of the techniques used included token economy and provide verbal praise when student is engaging in work.
This case was one of the first times I had to formulate such data in a real life situation, I learned that school personnel work as a team and use data-based decision-making methods, problem-solving strategies, consultation, collaboration, and direct services in the context of crisis prevention, preparation, response, and recovery to aid students.
Counseling and Behavior Intervention Plans are a secondary-tier interventions with proven effectiveness for reducing problem behaviors and increasing responsiveness to primary-tier expectations of positive behavioral interventions and supports. There are many strategies for keeping at-risk students out of special education. According to the Behavioral Intervention Plan, the target behavior is failure to complete homework and class assignments on a regular basis, lateness to class and school refusal. Schools can increase the attendance of students through the wider community and the use of home-school collaboration. Parents can get involved with using reward systems, teaching student’s relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and other stress management skills, contingency management, and social skills training.