Teacher Consultation
It is clear that helping parents use effective and consistent discipline improves
child behavior in the home setting. Thus, it follows logically that helping
classroom teachers to use the same strategies would lead to improvements in
child behavior in the school setting and would foster consistency across settings.
Research associated with the Daily Report Card (DRC) procedure support for this
idea.
Unfortunately, national surveys suggest that many teachers to do not feel adequately
prepared to address the behavioral needs of students through behavior modification
or classroom interventions. This suggests that teachers need additional professional
development training as well as ongoing support to implement effective classroom
interventions. Thus, the Y.E.S.S. Program provides initial summer in-service
training, as well as year-long consultation to school staff.
In recent reviews of effective classroom behavioral interventions for children
with ADHD, authors describe the role of the consultant (e.g., school counselor,
psychologist). Consultants assist teachers in the assessment of problem behaviors,
identification of appropriate target behaviors, development of the DRC procedures
and rewards, and troubleshooting the intervention. Collaborative efforts are
likely to be most effective when teachers and consultants work as “co-equals
to generate creative solutions to mutually defined problems.”
Evidence from the education literature suggests that collaborative consultation
between mental health professionals and teachers results in improved teacher
perceptions of their most challenging children, a reduction in unnecessary special
education placements, and a reduction in unnecessary psycho-educational testing.
In addition, when behavioral consultation services are provided conjointly to
parents and teachers, the consultation effectively changes child behaviors across
home and school settings. In contrast, when consultation is provided to teachers
only, only school-based behaviors are modified.
Finally, as a testimony to the importance of conjoint parent and teacher consultation
in the treatment of ADHD, the American Academy of Pediatrics (2001) Practice
Guidelines for the Treatment of School-Aged Children with ADHD recommends that
the “treating clinician, parents, and the child, in collaboration with
school personnel, should specify appropriate target outcomes to guide management”
with the strength of evidence for this statement categorized as “good”
and strength of recommendation categorized as “strong.”
