A model for school psychology practice: addressing the needs of students with emotional and behavioral challenges through the use of an in-school support room and reality therapy

Adolescence, Fall, 2004 by Perry D. Passaro, Michael Moon, Dudley J. Wiest, Eugene H. Wong

All of the students within this study were diagnosed outside of the school setting by licensed mental health professionals using DSM-IVTR criteria. Each of the ten students was identified as having multiple psychological disorders, in addition to their classification according to special education criteria.

Student 1 met the DSM-IV-TR criteria for an attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), as well as depression. Students 2 and 4 were diagnosed with ADHD and ODD; however, at the conclusion of this study, student 4 was re-evaluated and diagnosed with a conduct disorder (CD). Student 3 was identified with ADHD, ODD, intermittent explosive disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. Student 5 was diagnosed with mild deficit to borderline intellectual functioning, attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity (ADD), and ODD. Student 6 met the criteria for both ADD and depression. Student 7 was primarily depressed in addition to being diagnosed with ODD. Student 8 met the criteria for ADHD, ODD, and depression. Student 9 was diagnosed with ODD, and student 10 was diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder.

Setting

A comprehensive middle school housed the district's middle school program for students with emotional disturbance (ED). These students are primarily served in a special day class (SDC) program. The SDC described in this study housed a teacher and one or two instruction assistants. However, when students required greater individualized support, they were referred by staffor self-referred to a second, smaller classroom, which serves as the school psychologist's office.

This setting provides a place and an individual to help solve a problem. Given that few school psychologists serve a single campus, it is essential for the school psychologist to train other staff members to serve students in the ISSR.

The primary purpose of the ISSR is to temporarily remove the student from a problem situation, not to punish. The message is: "We need to work this out." The atmosphere of the classroom and ISSR is positive and noncoercive to increase the likelihood that the student will evaluate the behavior that he is choosing, learn that he is responsible for his choices, and to help him develop the skills to make more effective choices. This cognitive approach is employed to help the student engage in a more effective set of coping behaviors by focusing on choices.

The school psychologist's office/ISSR is a comfortable place with both individual student desks and a large conference table surrounded by six padded chairs. Here the student can calm down, think about the situation, and develop a plan to return to class. As in sports, the ISSR is used to break the momentum, evaluate the situation, and formulate a plan.

Reality Therapy

Glasser (1988) states: "Counseling is just one human being helping another with a problem. This is not hard to do, if the person with the problem wants to be counseled." Students with emotional disturbances, may be resistant to counseling and defensive. Given this need for the student to want to solve the problem (counseling), and the innate resistance of most students with emotional disturbances, the school psychologist's job is to motivate them to participate in counseling and to persuade them to want to learn/change.