Preparation of School Psychologists to Serve as Consultants for Teachers of Emotionally Disturbed Children

Abstract

Training behavioral consultants in the school psychology field has emerged as a high priority in recent years. Most efforts have centered on training consultants to assist teachers in their efforts to solve children's academic and behavioral problems in the regular classroom. This traditional form of consultation has often been referred to as prereferral incervention. WIch the growing success of consultation proczdures in applied settings, a corresponding need has developed for e,lective training of behavioral consultants to work with special education teachers whose students experience more severe academic and social problems. This project involved a preservice training program in which five school psychology graduate students were required to master such behavioral consultation skills as problem identification, problem analysis, intervention strategies, and treatment evaluation; these students then served as consultants to five special education teachers of severely emotionally disturbed children. Four dimensions of the preservice training program ware evaluated. First, the project documented student acquisition of specific consultation skills. Second, the project monitored teachers' implementation of intervention programs developed through the consultation process. Third, the projec_ documented the evaluation of individual programs implemented with children identified as severely emotionally disturbed. Finally, the project evaluated the training program by comparing it to a matched control sample in the public school. Implications for future training of school psychologists and resolving barriers in working with teachers in applied settings ere presented.