APPENDICES
2.2 The state of School Psychological Services
2.2.3 Defining School Psychological Services Programme
of services already delivered in the public domain and simultaneously suggest how they can influence learners’ well-being, specifically how to handle personal issues which can potentially be a barrier to learning..
guidance services or Life Orientation programme. This includes all human and other resources that help to develop and support the education system so that it is responsive to the different needs of learners.
According to Kamphaus (1995), psychological services have been part of the American schooling experience for nearly a century and the nature of school psychology services have changed dramatically over the decades so that modern school psychology services differ significantly from their roots. For much of the 21stcentury school psychology services have emphasized assessment practice. School psychologists have primarily been involved in evaluating the needs of children in order to determine eligibility for special education and related services. Over the course of the past couple of decades, school psychology services have expanded to meet a broader array of needs, influencing the entire student body, not just children who are identified as having special needs (Kamphaus, 1995).
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Health Promotion (CDC, 2009), a coordinated School Health Promotion Programme (CSHP) model consists of eight interactive components as identified in Figure 2.2 below. The eight components have to complement each other to promote the well-being of learners. They are critical means for improving both education performance and the well-being of young people. The key goals are increase health, knowledge, attitudes and skills; increase positive health behaviours and health outcomes;
improve education outcomes and improve social outcomes. However, a difficulty or disturbance in one component affects the other services in the model.
Figure 2.2: A Coordinated School Health Promotion Programme (CDC, 2009, p. 2) Schools therefore provide a critical facility in which many agencies might work together to maintain the well-being of young people, as a School Health Promotion Programme contains eight main components, i.e., family/community involvement, health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, health promotion for staff, healthy school environment, and counselling, psychological and social services.
“Dating back to the very inception of contemporary school psychology in the United States, the raison d’etre for the field has been to infuse the benefits of psychological theory, research, and the practice into the daily lives of children and the fabric of schooling” (Gutkin & Conoley, 1990). According to Gutkin and Conoley (1990), “schools provide an ideal setting for the delivery of Psychological Services”. This supposition is based on the belief that schools are
relatively predictable environments where children spend hundreds of hours during formative years interacting with significant adults and peers. As CDC (2009) put it, schools have direct contact with more than 95% of the national’s young people aged 5-17 years, for about 6 hours a day. The processes of education and psychology want to see children develop cognitively, emotionally, and physically to their fullest potential. In sum, no other social system provides a more comprehensive opportunity to impact children and parents than the school.
School Psychological Services are therefore seen as actions, initiatives and programmes to help learners adjust to their environment and to grow into responsible adults. Although there are many such services with different nomenclatures in different countries and communities, they are all characterised by practices which are meant to effect changes in behaviour and assist the comprehensive development of individuals to adulthood. The services should be seen as intervention strategies in schools to bring about change in individual behaviour, promote health and discourage inappropriate lifestyles. These changes can either be brought about by classroom practices, direct or indirect contact with learners and their parents, and deliberate and planned teacher actions.
School Psychological or Psycho-Educational Services are an independent group of clinical, educational and legal services dedicated to assisting children and adolescents with special needs.
It is dedicated to improving the educational well-being, academic potential, and the emotional health of all children, adolescents, and families (School Psychology Services, 2002). In the same vein, Elliot and Witt (1986) posit that schools provide an ideal setting for the delivery of Psychological Services to children from pre-school through to higher education solely for the
protection and promotion of mental health and facilitation of learning. It includes the following services which are meant to enhance learners’ emotional health such as psychological and psycho-educational evaluation and assessment of children through the use of screening procedures, psychological and educational tests (particularly individual psychological tests of intellectual functioning, cognitive development, affective behaviour, and neuropsychological status), interviews, observation, and behaviour evaluations with explicit regard for the context and the setting in which professional judgements based on assessment, diagnosis and evaluations; interventions to facilitate the functioning of individuals or groups with concern for how schooling influences and is influenced by their cognitive, conative, affective and social development. Such interventions may include, but are not limited to, recommending, planning, and evaluating special education services, psycho-educational therapy, counselling, affective education programmes, and training programmes to improve coping skills; interventions to facilitate the educational services and child-care functions of school personnel, parents, and community agencies. They may also include in-service school personnel education programmes, parent education programmes, and parent counselling; consultation and collaboration with school personnel and/or parents concerning specific school-related problems of learners and students and the professional problems of staff.
They also include assistance with the planning of educational programmes from a psychological perspective; consultation of teachers and other school personnel to enhance their understanding of the needs of particular learners; modification of classroom instructional programmes to facilitate children’s learning; and the creation, collection, organisation and provision of information from psychological research and theory to educate staff and parents. It also includes
programme development services to individual schools, to administrative systems, and to community agencies in such areas as needs assessment and evaluation of regular and specific education programmes; coordination, administration, and planning of specialized educational programmes; the generation, collection, organisation, and dissemination of information from psychological research and theory to educate staff and parents, and lastly, supervision of School Psychological Services (Elliot & Witt, 1986, p. 3). According to Strein et al., (2003), although school psychology is conceptualised as primarily an indirect service specialty, conceptualizing school psychological services from a public health perspective will provide an even broader framework that can increase both the efficiency and efficacy of psychologists’ work.
The Model for Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services (Figure 2.3) serves as a guide to the organisation and delivery of School Psychological Services and simultaneously provides direction to school psychologists, school counsellors, students and other stakeholders of School Psychological Services (SPS) regarding excellence in professional practice.
Figure 2.3: Model of Comprehensive and Integrated School Psychological Services (Adapted from National Association of School Psychologists, 2010, p. 4)
According to the NASP Model (2010, p. 4) “school psychologists and counsellors are uniquely qualified members of school teams that support teachers’ ability to teach and children’s ability to learn. They provide direct educational, behavioural, and mental health services for children and youth, as well as work with families, educators and other professionals to create supportive learning and social environments for all children”. They play a leading role in the delivery of School Psychological Services, with the support of school counsellors.