APPENDICES
2.2 The state of School Psychological Services
2.2.4 Delivery of School Psychological Services: International approach
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.
diagram below provides an illustration of the two modes of delivery for School Psychological Services, namely direct and indirect services:
Direct Influence
on Child
Indirect Influence on Child
Counselling/Therapy – Psychologist works with individual child or small groups of children to enhance adjustment or development Psycho-educational Assessment – Psychologist uses formal and informal data collection devices with individual children to obtain information needed for decisions about screening, classification, placement, and interventions
Consultative Child Study – Psychologist works with parents or teachers to enhance adjustment or development of child
In-service – Psychologist works to increase knowledge or skills or to change attitudes of groups of school personnel
Research – Psychologist systematically gathers data to aid in decision making regarding groups of children and their educational programmes
FIGURE 2.4: Influences of School Psychological Services on children. From “Roles and Status of School Psychology” by V. Monroe. In G.D. Phye and D.J. Reschly (Eds). School Psychology: Perspectives and Issues (pp. 25-47). New York: Academic Press.
Copyright 1979. Reprinted by permission.
What the diagram represents are different psychological services and locates counselling as a direct service while research is considered as an indirect service. Consultation is unique to the indirect method of delivery. It is a process for helping a client through a third party, or a process of helping a system improve its services to its clients (Jackson, 1986). It includes in-service training for educators, parent training, curriculum advisement, and some behavioural interventions (Elliot & Witt, 1986). The purpose of consultation is to enhance the problem- solving capacity of a consultee by providing new knowledge, new skills, a greater sense of self- efficacy and a more perfectly developed level of objectivity in them (Conoley & Conoley, 1990).
School psychologists can consult with teachers either to provide advice and information about general mental health and other psychological issues affecting students, or determine the effectiveness of student programmes, strategies and techniques, psychological intervention and prevention approaches (Australian Psychological Society, 2013). Whatever approach the school
adopts, Elliot and Witt (1986) caution that an exclusive reliance on either direct or indirect service techniques is indicative of an incomplete service model and should be avoided as certain cases demand the direct attention and skills of a psychologist whereas others can be handled effectively by teachers, parents, or even peers.
Earlier on Elliot and Witt (1986, pp. 20-22) developed a generic model for the delivery of Psychological Services which has instructional value and which can be modified upon implementation to suit the needs of a particular school district. The six assumptions, which still hold true today, are:
Behaviour and learning problems of children are functionally related to the setting in which they are manifest. This assumption does not mean that educational settings necessarily cause the psycho-educational problems children manifest in such settings;
however it does suggest that the relationship may be primarily casual or that the behaviour is triggered by a factor(s) in the school environment. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate an educational environment, as well as a particular child.
A primary goal of psycho-educational assessment is to determine what a child does and does not know, and how the child learns best so that successful intervention can be designed. This assumption stems logically from the required end-product of assessment;
in other words, what and how information is a prerequisite to the development of a valid individual education plan. Such a supposition is consistent with a thorough consultative problem-solving and skills-training approach to assessment.
Techniques for individual diagnosis and intervention need to be supplemented with
a social system. Generally, it is not sufficient to intervene only at the level of an individual student. In order to enhance the probability of meaningful and long-term behaviour change, it is necessary to intervene on a broader level.
The greater the proximity in place and time of Psychological Services to educational settings, the greater the utilization of these services. This assumption is based on the premise that problem-solving communication among professionals working with an individual will be enhanced if they work in the same environment. In addition, psychologists who work in and are part of a particular ecology (e.g., school) will be more knowledgeable of the resources and constraints of the system. In this situation, proximity does not breed contempt; rather, proximity breeds accessibility.
Psychological Services should be directed toward the development and utilisation of resources indigenous to schools. The essence of a consultation-oriented service system is for consultants to work indirectly with children through a consultee (i.e., teachers and parents), and thus enhance the consultee’s ability to solve future problems. By focusing on indigenous resources, we increase the likelihood of designing interventions that are socially valid and that can realistically be implemented in a classroom or other settings.
Psycho-educational interventions require the on-going attention of the person(s) who implement them because over time a child’s response to a particular intervention will change. If we had to choose one fatal flaw of education (relative to business or other fields), it is that it fails to evaluate and to periodically follow up on suggested interventions with children. Such follow-ups allow for refinement of a particular intervention and to provide feedback concerning their effectiveness.
The generic model above encapsulates what is necessary for the effective implementation of School Psychological Services for the benefit of learners. According to Gutkin and Conoley (1990), although there are minor discrepancies among the results, typical practicing school psychologists appear to spend approximately 60% of their time in activities related to assessment, 25% on consultation, 10% on direct intervention, 3% on in-service, and 2% on research/programme evaluation. Of these five functions, four can be characterised along the direct-indirect service delivery continuum with little difficulty. Clearly the consultation, in- service, and research/programme evaluation activities should be viewed as indirect services. The remedial interventions provided by school psychologists (e.g. counselling and psychotherapy) are best characterised as direct services. Categorising the assessment functions of school psychologists is problematic. Although school psychologists have a great deal of direct contact with learners while they perform their assessment duties, the assessment role is best characterised as an indirect service. Gutkin and Conoley (1990) made two essential points in support of the above analysis; the first being the fact that although assessment activities lead to services for children, in and of themselves they are not services for children. Secondly, as indicated in the generic model, assessment activities are intermediate steps in a total service delivery model. Assessment activities are best characterised as a means to an end rather than as an end in and of themselves. A procedural flowchart (Appendix K) illustrates a generic model of school Psychological Service delivery, a 15-step-by-step sequence of Psychological Services for referred learners.
What are the components of School Psychological Services? How are they offered in schools?
And, of what benefit are they to learners?