Response to intervention

This introduction provides a context for the other articles included in this volume. The Learning Disabilities Initiative, a multiyear effort at the Office of Special Education Programs, has been focused on a more efficient and effective process for determining specific learning disability eligibility.     

Strategies of intervention

This paper begins with a discussion of the optimal conditions for the provision of infant mental health services to infants and toddlers. It argues for the importance of the automatic provision of service at all levels of need. The pediatric setting is emphasized as the natural locus for the integration of such preventive services and as the first and often sole contact of parents and infants with professionals. The various kinds of possible service are delineated as are the sources of stress. It is suggested that the understanding of these factors should dictate the kind and level of response which might be most efficacious. Finally, some basic difficulties in establishing a working alliance with parents whose relationships with their infants and toddlers are developing very negatively are discussed. A framework for understanding some of these problems which may interfere with the parents' utilization of services is provided by employing the psychoanalytic concepts of transference and countertransference. The influence of these transference feelings on the relationship between parents and service providers of all kinds is emphasized and explored.     

The aims of intervention

This article discusses five major points that are important to consider before implementing consultation techniques in the school setting. The five points are: (a) definition of a personal intervention philosophy, (b) realization of one's theoretical biases, (c) awareness of the ecology and topology of the setting in which the intervention is being delivered, (d) recognition of the importance of one's communication and relational skills, and (e) the importance of linking intervention to assessment. Consultants are also encouraged to think carefully about their intervention techniques, urged to follow a collaborative consultation model, and reminded of Whitehead's (1929) notion that Life in all its manifestations should be the subject matter for education.     

Behavioral intervention strategies with child abusive parents: A home intervention program

This article describes a therapeutic program for child abusive parents that is psychoeducationally based and is conducted through home visits by trained behavioral interventionists. The immediate goals of the intervention are to teach abusive parents effective child management procedures based on social learning therapy and to modify faulty or excessive expectations these parents have toward the behavior of their children. The general model is discussed as well as criteria for selection of parents for home intervention services, the differences between home intervention with abusive and non-abusive parents and the procedures used in home intervention services. A general discussion is also provided of the various goals and stages through which parents progress.     

The ethics of intervention

Policy with regard to children with special educational needs has been continuously discussed and revised over the last 25 years to try to ensure that all children receive their rights to appropriate educational opportunities. However, as Georgina Glenny argues in this article, these efforts have led to a focus on the assessment and definition of need at the expense of attention to the quality of the intervention that follows. This relative lack of attention to the quality of the intervention raises serious questions for teachers, schools and local authorities as to the nature of their responsibilities for the children entrusted to their care. It is proposed that more systematic monitoring of the effectiveness of interventions would assist in refocusing attention on to the quality of children's learning experiences.     

Early intervention in behaviour

Abstract

FAST-Track is a support programme for pupils with social and emotional behaviour difficulties. It is designed to integrate the school curriculum, social skills training, reading development, parenting skills and home-school liaison. A 3 year longitudinal study is reported in which schools implementing the full FAST-Track programme were compared with those implementing only the curriculum component. Changes in behaviour were monitored using an amended version of the Rutter Behaviour Rating Scale. Results did not show any clear difference between the two groups of schools but did show substantial differences between individual schools, highlighting the difficulty of demonstrating the effectiveness of intervention programmes given the multiplicity of other factors which determine behaviour change. The implications of these findings for the methodology and practice of intervention programmes in this area are explored.     

Effects of intensive reading intervention for eighth-grade students with persistently inadequate response to intervention

The authors report the effects of a yearlong, very small-group, intensive reading intervention for eighth-grade students with serious reading difficulties who had demonstrated low response to intervention (RTI) in both Grades 6 and 7. At the beginning of Grade 6, a cohort of students identified as having reading difficulties were randomized to treatment or comparison conditions. Treatment group students received researcher-provided reading intervention in Grade 6, which continued in Grade 7 for those with low response to intervention; comparison students received no researcher-provided intervention. Participants in the Grade 8 study were members of the original treatment (N = 28) and comparison (N = 13) conditions who had failed to pass a state-mandated reading comprehension test in both Grades 6 and 7. In Grade 8, treatment group students received a 50-minute, daily, individualized, intensive reading intervention in groups of two to four students per teacher. The results showed that students in the treatment condition demonstrated significantly higher scores than comparison students on standardized measures of comprehension (effect size = 1.20) and word identification (effect size = 0.49), although most continued to lack grade-level proficiency in reading despite 3 years of intervention. Findings from this study provide a rationale for intensive intervention for middle school students with severe reading difficulties.     

Utilizing parents for paraprofessional intervention

This study was based on research which examined paraprofessional intervention in an urban community having large numbers of educationally and socially disadvantaged children and disenchanted parents. Establishment of paraprofessional corps has grown rapidly in the past decade and is accelerating as a strategy for improving the quality of education in urban communities. This development incorporated many concepts: (1) new careers, (2) growth of educational technology, (3) cultural assimilation and diversity, (4) team teaching, (5) personal improvement of teacher aides, (6) parents as partners (based on action theorists' postulations as a theoretical frame for the study), and (7) home and school focus on achievement—all of which yield high productivity in the community-education arena inexpensively to insufficient school budgets and strategically to teaching-learning demands for quality education.     

政府放任与政府干预——密尔有限政府干预思想解读

约翰.密尔是19世纪英国著名的政治思想家,他一方面以自由主义原则为基础,认为一般情况下社会事务应由个人自愿去做,政府应奉行放任政策;另一方面,他又根据功利主义原则,赞成政府为增加人民福利对经济事务和个人活动进行适度干预。以此为基础,密尔提出了一套完整的有限政府干预思想,为形成新自由主义政府干预理论作出了重要贡献。     

Crisis intervention teams in the schools

When a crisis occurs in the school setting, school officials must be prepared to handle the situation effectively and efficiently. One of the ways school officials can handle a crisis situation is through the use of crisis intervention teams. The steps in establishing a crisis intervention team in a school setting include: determining goals, performing a needs assessment, finding model programs, developing a membership pool, developing a training program, preparing and maintaining a list of resources and plans for support services, establishing a communication network, designating a base of operations, planning team meetings, keeping records, and implementing the phases of debriefing. A crisis management scenario is presented and discussed in terms of the steps.     

Creative self-efficacy: An intervention study

This study examined the effects of creativity training on creative self-efficacy. We developed a creativity course based on social cognitive theory. The course was conducted in two formats: a five-day course and a condensed one-day course. Samples consisted of students and municipality employees (five-day course), and special education teachers (one-day course). Students from a mathematics and statistics course constituted a control group. We measured creative self-efficacy before and after the intervention, and self-efficacy improved significantly for both the five-day and the one-day courses, while the control group showed no changes in creative self-efficacy. Self-efficacy levels increased significantly for both students and municipality employees. A follow-up assessment two months after completing the five-day course showed no decline in creative self-efficacy.     

Teacher stress: Issues and intervention

The purpose of this study was to consider the stress within the teacher's environment and examine methods of assisting public school teachers with managing stress. Participants in the study were 124 female public school teachers of grades K-12 from the public school systems of two central Georgia counties. Three weeks after completing a set of pretest questionnaires, each teacher participated in one of two three-hour training sessions. In the individualized training method, participants were led through a step-by-step development of an individualized plan for more effectively managing the stressor they had identified at the beginning of the training session. By the end of the session, each participant had her own plan for working on her own major stress. In the global approach training method, information about stress was presented to the participants in a lecture fashion with the focus being on general knowledge with no attempt being made to direct the participants in the development of individualized plans. Approximately three weeks after the training session, all participants were sent a set of questions concerning their activities in stress management since the training. The results of the study provided data concerning types of stresses experienced, sources of stress at work and home, effects of stress and burnout, and relative effectiveness of the two training approaches in terms of degree of relief, variety and type of methods utilized, and degree of involvement. The results indicate that the teachers who received the individual training method did significantly increase the time they spend on managing stress.     

Response to varying amounts of time in reading intervention for students with low response to intervention

Two studies examined response to varying amounts of time in reading intervention for two cohorts of first-grade students demonstrating low levels of reading after previous intervention. Students were assigned to one of three groups that received (a) a single dose of intervention, (b) a double dose of intervention, or (c) no intervention. Examination of individual student response to intervention indicated that more students in the treatment groups demonstrated accelerated learning over time than students in the comparison condition. Students' responses to the single-dose and double-dose interventions were similar over time. Students in all conditions demonstrated particular difficulties with gains in reading fluency. Implications for future research and practice within response to intervention models are provided.     

Effective intervention for school refusal behaviour

Evaluation of successful professional intervention for two case studies of female adolescents’ school refusal behaviour is presented. Data gathered from the young person, professionals, and parents in each case are synthesised to propose a multi-level, ecologically situated model of intervention for school refusal behaviour. The proposed model indicates an interaction of child, psychological support, family support, professional, and systemic factors. The utility of explanatory case studies to a practice-based evidence base for practitioner educational psychologists is highlighted.     

构建高校班级层面的危机干预体系

大学生心理危机已成为高校管理的一大隐患．危机干预虽倍受重视但效果不佳。究其主要啄因’目前高校采用的危机干预体系尚不成熟。作在多年从事高校心理健康教育的经验基础上，结合国际国内危机干预的理论与实践．构建了一种班级层面的危机干预体系。该体系为高校危机干预工作的实施走向制度化、常规化和科学化创造了一种雏形．并提出了在班级层面可操作性强的一系列危机干预策略。     

The response in response to intervention: Evaluating the utility of assessing maintenance of intervention effects

Extensive evidence exists demonstrating the utility of Curriculum‐Based Measurement in reading (R‐CBM) for progress‐monitoring purposes; however, most studies have evaluated R‐CBM from a traditional psychometric perspective, which allows for variability in individual student's data that is not a function of increased skills (i.e., measurement error) to be ignored. Although measurement error can be ignored when the level of interest is at the group level, it is difficult to ignore at the individual‐child level when evaluating intervention effectiveness. To account for measurement error, it is recommended that R‐CBM data be collected twice weekly for 10 weeks before making decisions regarding intervention effectiveness. Waiting 10 weeks to learn that an intervention is ineffective is troublesome. The current study explores maintenance of intervention effects as a supplemental procedure to R‐CBM progress‐monitoring procedures. Data from 4 students suggest that maintenance data might be valuable in the early termination of ineffective interventions. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 713–725, 2006.