Chapters 7 and 9

1. Merrell, K.W., Ervin, R. A., & Peacock, G. G. (2006). School psychology for the 21st century: Foundations and practices. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Chapters 7 and 9

2. Chapter 7 Facilitating Change through Data-Driven Problem Solving: A Model for School Psychology Practice.

3. Roles of the School Psychologist Expected Role Future Roles • Diagnostic • Refer • Test • Place • SEARCH FOR PATHOLOGY! • Non-categorical diagnostics • Problem-solving model • Assessment • Intervention • Systems Change • Research • Focus on prevention

4. Aptitude by Treatment Interaction (ATI) • Assumptions: • Characteristics of the person affect response to treatment • Person will learn more easily from one method than another • The method differs from person to person • The method can be determined based on data from assessment. • Data: • Fails to support these assumptions • Individuals are not simply one variable deep (mediating and moderating variables and multiple aptitudes).

5. Problem Solving Model • Focuses on the problem • Emphasis on early intervention (fix it before it gets bigger). • Uses research and not “assumptions” to guide practice. [Evidence-based practice] • Uses direct assessment tools for measuring academic and behavioral outcomes. • Links the assessment to the intervention. • Outcome-focused and context-specific

6. Problem Solving Model

7. Basic Problem Identification • This will vary across different academic and behavioral tasks. • Changes to make this gap smaller need to focus on all aspects of the child’s issues. • This distance may widen and shorten throughout the span of time a child is in school.

8. What is the problem? • Requires objective means to measure the problem. • Precise • Practical • Objective • Socially valid • Problem morphs into goals (short- and long-term) • Measurement must be quantifiable. • Intensity • Frequency • Duration • Severity • Magnitude • Complexity • Resistance to intervention.

9. Why is it Occurring? • Linking assessment to treatment and evaluation • Analysis of problem context and function • Hypothesis formation phase • Assess when, where and with whom the problem is better or worse.

10. Why is it Occurring? Ways to Test Review of the reasons for problems: • Variety of Sources: • Student • Teacher • Parent • Peers • Admin • Variety of Tools • Formal • Informal • Low motivation • Rewarded for not doing the tasks • Work is too hard. • Work is not sufficiently explained or not enough help provided. • Work is too different from what is expected.

11. What Should Be Done About It? • Use the collected data to determine the basis of the intervention. • Design the intervention around this data AND around research-based interventions in the literature. • Interventions chosen for: • Relevance to the problem • Contextual fit • Likelihood of success. • Establish progress monitoring tools and timelines

12. Did it Work? • To be completed, problem should be resolved. • Examine data collected through progress monitoring. • Compare pre-post intervention data. • Single-subject design techniques are good.

13. Chapter 9 The School Psychologist’s Role in Prevention and Intervention: Part 1: Academic Skills

14. Fundamentals • Children learn and develop at different rates. • Developmental progress varies over time and across domains. • Interventions must be adapted to meet the individual student’s needs. • Problem solving model cannot guarantee success BUT it should increase the probability of success.

15. Risk and Protective Factors General Risk Factors Protective Factors • Poverty (lack of resources) • Economic Dependence • Overcrowding • Disorganization within the family system • Uncaring parents • Chronic family conflict • Abuse/ Maltreatment • Quality parent/child relationships • Good cognitive development • Self-regulation of attention, emotion, and behavior

16. Intervention Considerations • Trustworthy and effective • For your student • In that context • Relevant to the problem and context • Efficient • Practical • Acceptable • Feasible in context • Produces desired outcomes • Evaluated for your child in this situation

17. Things to note: • Early Intervention in Reading: • Phonological awareness • Alphabetic understanding • Accuracy and fluency • Learning needs interactions and alignments between • Student (who is being taught) • Curriculum (what is being taught) • Instruction (how it is being taught)

18. Student (Who is being Taught?) • What is the student’s prior knowledge: skills, strategies, perceptions, expectations, and beliefs • Task specific: information needed for that task. • Know the foundational information • Can access needed information with automaticity • Task related: skills needed for learning. • Can solve problems • Can self-monitor • Can self-regulate • Student variables that affect learning: • Selective attention • Motivation • Ability to recall

19. The Curriculum (What to Teach?) • Types of curriculum: • Intended: formally recommended and adopted • Taught: what is actually taught by teachers • Learned: what is actually learned by students • Problems when significant difference between intended and learned.

20. Instruction (How and When to Teach) • Should be timed for hierarchical learning (example below) • Step one = mastered • Step two = in progress • Step three = on hold • Learning facilitated through: • Explanations • Demonstrations • Guided practice • Timely correction • Task-specific feedback

21. Improve Academic Engagement, Motivation, Self-Regulation, & Problem Solving • Structuring the Classroom Environment: • Organizing a productive classroom • Establishing rules and procedures • Managing transitions • Managing independent seatwork • Communicating competency with students • Teaching pro-social behavior • Contingency-Management: • Systems of rewards and punishments • Established expectations • Teaching Strategies: • Interactive strategies over lecture • Peer tutoring • Cooperative Learning • Teacher questioning

22. Improve Academic Engagement, Motivation, Self-Regulation, & Problem Solving • Self-Monitoring: • Teachable skill • Observing behavior • Recording observations • Self-evaluation • Self-reinforcement • Self-Instruction • Teach them to verbalize information that is unfamiliar. • Teaching strategies for learning. • Mneumonics • Study skills

23. Improve Skill Development, Fluency, and Retention of Information Organizing Materials • Techniques: • Demonstration • Modeling • Cueing • Prompting • Considerations • Break into smaller bits • Identify what will be confusing and focus on it. • Relate new information to older information • Teach to mastery • Strategies for Improving Academics • Math = number sense • Reading = phonemic awareness • Reading Fluency = repeated readings

24. Prevention • Primary prevention: All students are target • Who receives intervention (nature of population) • What will be the nature of the services • How and when to be implemented • Collect data to determine who needs help • Begin problem solving model to provide help • Repeat at secondary and tertiary levels if applicable

25. Class Discussion • Read the Discussion Question #5 (pg 204-205) and discuss with the group.