Personal Consultation Essay
Heather Clark
Ball State University
March 3, 2005
School psychologists provide a wide variety of invaluable psychological and
educational services. However, it is a common misconception that the only function of
a school psychologist is to administer intelligence and achievement tests in an effort to
make determinations regarding a child’s special education eligibility. Of course, this
misconception is closely tied to the fact that many school systems today require their
school psychologists to be nothing more than testing machines, cranking out
psychological assessment data as quickly as possible.
Yet, it is important to remember that school psychologists are highly trained
professionals, who are more than capable of providing schools with a multitude of
educational and psychological services. In fact, it is costly to students, teachers, and
parents to underutilize one of their most useful resources. As such, I plan to discuss
consultation, which is just one of the many services school psychologists can provide.
Theoretical Orientation of Consultation
Behavioral consultation is based on the principles of noted psychologists
such as Skinner, Bandura, and Meichenbaum. Consequently, the behavioral model of
consultation relies heavily on the basic ABC paradigm, which focuses not only on the
behavior itself but on the antecedents and consequences of behavior as well. This focus
on behavior can be translated into four general steps, which serve as guidelines in
behavioral consultation: problem identification, problem analysis, plan implementation,
and treatment evaluation. What is always important to keep in mind is that the goal of
behavioral consultation is to develop a concrete, descriptive, and behavioral definition of
the problem in hopes of identifying and implementing successful strategies, which will
have a positive impact on the original problem.
Closely related to the behavioral model of consultation is the eco-behavioral
model of consultation. While both models have a primary focus on behavior, they differ
significantly in their focus on proximal and distal antecedents to behavior. Proximal
antecedents are events that occur just prior to the behavior, while distal antecedents are
historical events in an individual’s life. These historical events include both personal and
environmental factors such as parent-child interactions, family living situations, as well
as a past history of physical/sexual/emotional abuse.
According to the behavioral model, identifying the proximal antecedents of the
behavior is key to understanding the cause and coming up with solutions. On the other
hand, the eco-behavioral model stresses the importance of distal antecedents. With this
in mind, events, which immediately preceded the behavior, may not be at the root of the
problem. Rather, the behavior may be the product of events in the child’s past. Therefore,
the process of consultation would be more closely tied to examining the influence of
distal antecedents on the problem behavior.
Another important model of consultation is based on social learning theory. “The
central construct underpinning the social learning theory model (SLM) of consultation is
reciprocal determinism…human functioning is the result of a dynamic interrelationship
among behaviors, the environment, and certain cognitive variables, mainly appraisals and
expectations of outcome (Brown, Pryzwansky, & Schulte, 2001). Social learning theory
is appealing due to the emphasis it places on the unique interplay between behavior,
environment, and cognition for each individual.
For instance, it recognizes the fact that the functioning of some individuals is
heavily tied to their environment, while other individuals seem to be the product of their
cognitions and/or behaviors. By having a clear understanding of individual variation,
school psychologists can tailor their consultation accordingly. This would ideally result
in a constructive and beneficial relationship between the consultant and consultee and
eventually translate into positive change within the client.
MENTAL HEALTH MODEL
Personal Strengths and Weaknesses
As a graduate student and former teacher, I have had ample experience with your
basic interview process. Consequently, I am more than used to supplying people with a
little self-disclosure by sizing up my own personal strengths and weaknesses. Of course,
it is always more advantageous to start by mentioning the more positive qualities, so that
is the path I have chosen to take.
As mentioned above, I have two years of previous teaching experience. Without
a doubt, this has got to be the most important personal strength, when it comes to being
a future school psychologist. Prior to entering graduate school, I was a special education
(emotionally handicapped) teacher with Indianapolis Public Schools. Due to the fact that
I had undergraduate training and experience in psychology, I was placed at Resource,
Inc., a residential treatment facility and IPS satellite school.
Teaching in this incredibly unique environment was beneficial for me in so many
ways. Foremost, I was literally thrown into a seemingly impossible situation and forced
to learn how to teach an extremely diverse group of students all in the same classroom.
In fact, my students ranged in age from 9-18 years old and came to our facility with the
full spectrum of special education classifications including EH, LD, MiMH, and MoMH.
Furthermore, most of the student had comorbid psychological issues such as depression,
anxiety, conduct disorder, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This would not
have been nearly as challenging, if the students could have been organized into groups
based on their age and ability. Yet, our facility was limited by the fact that we had over
100 students and just a handful of teachers.
Needless to say, I was very overwhelmed in the beginning. Because of the wide
variety of exceptionalities coupled with the age differences, I was able to gain invaluable
experience in adapting the school curriculum to meet the diverse needs of the students.
At the same time, I was able to experience firsthand the limits of the current “push” in
school systems and teacher training programs: individualized education. Teachers are
hard-working, dedicated, and caring individuals. They want the very best for all of their
students. However, they cannot be expected to work miracles on a daily basis. Educators
can only differentialize the curriculum to a certain degree without actually having to
provide each student with individualized, one-on-one instruction.
This is a reality, which few graduate students in this field truly understand. Most
have had little to no experience in education. Most have never had to stand in front of a
class full of students and teach. Consequently, their view of what is possible is often
impractical and espousing this view in consultation with teachers will only highlight
their lack of experience and their lack of understanding of teaching in the real-world.
Aside from my teaching experience, I also have personal qualities, which follow
me wherever I go and aid in my ability to be successful. Foremost is my high level of
organization. I remember reading information on a website, which highlighted some
important qualities of “good” school psychologists. The very first characteristic on the
list was organization. It went on to cite the fact that school psychologists play many roles
in the school. Therefore, they must be adept at doing many things at once, and successful
multi-tasking is often dependent on organization.