Parent Consultation

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Parent Consultation
The Future of School Psychology Task Force on
Family-School Partnerships Susan Sheridan,
Michelle Swanger-Gagne, Kathryn Woods, Kathryn
Black, Jennifer Burt, S. Andrew Garbacz, Ashley
Taylor University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Definition

• Parent consultation within school psychology is
  defined as a structured, indirect, collaborative,
  problem-solving relationship between the
  psychologist (consultant) and one or more parent
  consultees (Sheridan, Kratochwill, Bergan,
  1996).

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Rationale for Using Parent Consultation

• Federal initiatives such as IDEA and NCLB
  highlight importance of collaborating with
  families.
• Learning occurs across many settings and
  contexts.
• There are several systems that interact to
  support the childs development.
• Children spend more time out of school than they
  do in school (Usdan, 1991, cited in Ooms Hara,
  1991).
• Maximizing the extent to which these systems work
  together on behalf of the child can close the
  achievement gap for students who are not
  succeeding in school.

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Rationale for Using Parent Consultation cont.

• Attempts to provide comprehensive mental health
  services without support and follow-through by
  parents or significant others lead to
• Disjointed and fragmented services
• Lack of follow-through (generalization)
• Unreasonable case loads
• Significant job stress
• (Kratochwill, VanSomeren, Sheridan, 1989)

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Key Characteristics of Parent Consultation

• Indirect service delivery (triadic model) carried
  out via a joint, problem-solving process.
• Work-related focus (not therapeutic)
  consultation is NOT counseling!
• Participants Consultant, consultee, client.
• Voluntary, collegial relationship that involves
  parity interdependence.
• Roles of participants are both defined and
  varied each participant brings his or her own
  expertise to the process.

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Indirect Service (Triadic) Model
Consultant
Consultee
Client
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Evidence-basedModels and Practices

• Parent Behavioral Consultation
• See PC Handout 1
• Conjoint Behavioral Consultation
• See PC Handout 2

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Parent Behavioral Consultation (BC)

• Parent consultation has been shown to foster
  family-school partnerships (Christenson Cleary,
  1990), and is a relatively easy, time-limited,
  and cost-effective method of service delivery
  (Sheridan, Kratochwill, Bergan, 1996).
• Parent consultation is an effective mode of
  treatment delivery for a variety of
  school-related behavioral concerns (Sheridan,
  Eagle, Cowan, Mickelson, 2001).
• Areas in which parent consultation has proven to
  be effective include
• Aggression, social skills, noncompliance, social
  withdrawal, homework completion, school phobia,
  language skills, tic disorder, and anxiety
  (Christenson Sheridan, 2001).

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Parent BC

• Most common model of parent consultation
  (Sheridan et al., 1996).
• Structured model with four interview stages
  Problem Identification, Problem Analysis,
  Treatment Implementation, and Treatment
  Evaluation.
• Can address a variety of child behavioral
  problems
• Academic and Adjustment Problems
• Social Withdrawal
• Electively Mute Behavior
• Tics

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What is Parent BC?

• An indirect form of service delivery in which a
  childs needs are met by a parent working with a
  consultant to develop, implement, and evaluate
  intervention strategies (Sheridan et al., 1996).
• Developed within the principles of applied
  behavior analysis.

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Stages of Parent BC

• Problem Identification
• Problem Analysis
• Treatment (Plan) Implementation
• Treatment (Plan) Evaluation
• See detailed discussion of stages in CBC section

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Parent BC

• Models using joint consultation with parents and
  teachers received the highest ratings of evidence
  for significant change and methodological rigor.
• Conjoint Behavioral Consultation provides the
  strongest evidence for producing significant
  school-related outcomes based on information
  obtained from parents and teachers (Sheridan, et
  al., 2001).
• Conclusions based on single-participant studies
• Researchers recognize need for between group
  design studies to further knowledge base in
  parent behavioral consultation and conjoint
  behavioral consultation.

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Conjoint Behavioral Consultation

• A structured, indirect form of service delivery
  in which teachers and parents are brought
  together to collaboratively identify and address
  students needs (Sheridan et al., 1996 Sheridan
  Kratochwill, 1992).
• Extension of the traditional behavioral
  consultation model that serves parents and
  teachers at the same time.
• Interview stages are the same as in that of
  behavioral consultation, except that stages are
  conducted in a simultaneous (rather than
  parallel) manner.
• Parents and teachers collaborate to
• Address the academic, behavioral, and social
  concerns of a child
• Monitor a childs behavior
• Design an intervention
• Rated by parents and teachers as the most
  acceptable consultation approach for academic,
  behavioral, and social-emotional problems when
  compared with teacher consultation models (Freer
  Watson, 1999).

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Process Goals of CBC

• Improve communication and knowledge about child
  and family.
• Increase commitments to educational goals.
• Address problems across, rather than within,
  settings.
• Promote shared ownership for need identification
  and solution.
• Promote greater conceptualization of a need.
• Increase the diversity of expertise and resources
  available.

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Process Goals of CBC (continued)

• Establish and strengthen home-school
  partnerships enhance the family-school
  relationship.
• Refers to a mutual effort toward a shared goal.
• Contains the philosophy, attitude, and belief
  that both families and educators are essential
  for childrens progress in school.
• Working together to promote the academic and
  social development of students.

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Outcomes Goals of CBC

• Obtain comprehensive and functional data over
  extended temporal and contextual bases.
• Identify potential setting events that are
  temporally or contextually distal to target.
• Improve skills and knowledge of all parties.
• Establish consistent programming across settings.
• Monitor behavioral contrast and side effects
  systematically via cross-setting treatment
  agents.
• Develop skills and competencies for future
  conjoint problem solving.
• Enhance generalization and maintenance of
  treatment effects.

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Stages of CBC

• Conjoint Needs Identification
• Conjoint Needs Analysis
• Conjoint Plan Implementation
• Conjoint Needs Evaluation
• See PC Handout 3

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Conjoint Needs Identification

• Behaviorally define the concern or problem as it
  is represented in the home and/or school
  environment.
• Explore environmental conditions that may be
  contributing to or motivating problem behaviors
  (antecedent, consequent, and sequential
  conditions).
• Provide a tentative strength of the behavior.
• Determine a goal for consultation.
• Establish a procedure for the collection of
  baseline data.

Goals Include
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Conjoint Need Identification

• Considerations
• Priorities for need identification and resolution
  are identified conjointly, with emphasis on
  shared perspectives and decision making.
• The primary concern may be identical across
  settings, or it may represent a unique emphasis
  based on system specific factors.
• Careful specification and operational definitions
  of concern is essential to ensure shared
  understanding of the problem, direct focus of an
  intervention, and consistent progress monitoring.
  Write it down!
• Clarify specific settings within systems that
  will be the focus for intervention.
• Helps to focus and simplify intervention
  procedures.

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Conjoint Needs Identification

• Considerations continued
• Explore within and across setting environmental
  factors that may contribute to or motivate
  behaviors.
• Setting events Antecedent, consequent, or
  sequential variables that may occur in a time or
  place that is distal to the target behavior, but
  still influence its occurrence.
• Discuss approximate strength of problem (e.g.,
  frequency, severity, intensity) and shared goals
  for resolution.

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Conjoint Needs Identification

• Considerations continued
• Baseline data collection procedures are
  established to clarify the specific nature and
  severity of concerns, determine important
  environmental and setting events, and set the
  stage for careful, systematic, data-based
  decision making.
• Parents and teachers should assist in determining
  the most feasible and meaningful way to collect
  data.
• Make it easy by providing forms and/or using
  permanent or tangible evidence.

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Conjoint Needs Analysis

• Evaluate and obtain agreement on the sufficiency
  and adequacy of baseline data.
• Identify setting events, ecological conditions,
  and cross-setting variables that may be impacting
  the target concern.
• Collaboratively design an effective intervention
  plan that is sensitive to setting-specific
  variables.
• Reaffirm record-keeping procedures.

Goals Include
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Conjoint Needs Analysis

• Considerations
• Baseline data collected across settings are
  explored.
• Trends across settings (e.g. home and school) are
  investigated cross setting conditions and
  setting events are highlighted when appropriate.
• Are there common things that happen across
  settings that trigger or maintain a behavior?
• Do events occurring in one setting trigger or
  contribute to a behavior in another setting?

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Conjoint Needs Analysis

• Considerations continued
• Consultant should direct discussion around
  possible environmental conditions that may be
  contributing to the need, in a collaborative and
  supportive nature.
• When eliciting parents and teachers perceptions
  about purpose or functions of the behavior,
  environmental explanations can then be
  identified.
• Interpretation of the problem in terms of
  environmental contingencies provides an important
  link between assessment and intervention.

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Conjoint Plan Development

• Together, the consultant and parent establish
  general strategies and specific plan tactics that
  might be used in a treatment package.
• Strategies should be related to the
  hypothesis/interpretation statement.
• Example If child acts out to avoid doing
  schoolwork at home (escape), what would and would
  not be appropriate intervention strategies??
• Brainstorming techniques are often useful to
  generate ideas -- a nonjudgmental attitude is
  essential!
• Summarize the plan, being clear about what is to
  be done, when, how, and by whom... Write it down!

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Conjoint Plan Implementation
Goals Include

• Monitor implementation of the intervention.
• Provide training if necessary.
• Assess behavioral side effects and contrast
  effects is the treatment causing any unforeseen
  problems or effects?
• Determine the need for immediate revisions of the
  plan.
• Continue data collection procedures.

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Conjoint Plan Evaluation

• Determine if the shared goals of consultation
  have been attained.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the plan across
  settings.
• Discuss strategies and tactics regarding the
  continuation, modification, or termination of the
  treatment plan across settings.
• Schedule additional interviews if necessary.
• Discuss ways to continue conjoint problem solving
  and shared decision making.

Goals Include
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Considerations for Effective Consultation
Practices

• Parents generally want what is best for their
  child, and to cooperate on his/her behalf.
• Parents and other family members know a great
  deal about their child.
• It is important to understand the distinction
  between what you know and what the parents know
  about the child.
• Interventions must be modified to meet the unique
  needs of each child and family.

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Considerations for Effective Consultation
Practices

• There is a professional obligation to include
  families when possible in the decision making
  process.
• Parents have a right to be fully aware of
  possible implications and responsibilities of
  interventions.
• Each family has its own strengths.
• There are many reasons, often unknown to
  professionals, why parents are or are not
  involved.
• Parents generally want to be involved, but they
  do not necessarily know the best way they can
  help their child, or how to approach schools and
  professionals.
• There are many ways that parents can help.

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Practical Considerations

• Process Variables
• Strategies must be modified and adapted to work
  with various types of families.
• Methods take time to develop and see results.
• Facilitate effective communication
• Reflection
• Clarification
• Use of Silence
• Summarization
• Paraphrasing
• Listening and attending
• Effective questioning Open ended questioning
• Control conflict by reframing and rephrasing
  negative statements. Remain positive.
• Cultural Considerations
• More research has to be dedicated to
  investigating the effectiveness of parent
  consultation with diverse populations.
• Replication studies needed across diverse
  cultural and ethnic groups.

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Reflection

• Thinking about your role as a consultant within a
  consultation relationship involves
• Not interjecting your own opinion or personal
  agenda
• Demonstrating an open-minded attitude
• Communicating appropriately,
• Managing group dynamics, and
• Incorporating diversity

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Clarification

• Being clear about ones actions.
• Providing open opportunities to talk.
• The goal is to hear and understand the consultee,
  not to use questions in a rote and mechanical
  fashion.
• Allows consultees to explore topics and come up
  with creative solutions to problems.

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Use of Silence

• The definition of silence is relative to each
  conversations tempo and patterns of speech.
• Alternatives to silence interruptions,
  talkovers, reduced verbal spacing, thoughtless
  verbalizations to fill silence.
• Try to develop a habit of protecting verbal
  space avoid verbal crowding.
• Use your own silence as an opportunity for
  collecting your thoughts and directing the
  interview.

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Summarization

• A collection of two or more paraphrases or
  reflections based on critical dimensions of
  consultees statements.
• Focuses interview by condensing and clarifying
  what was said.
• Identifies common theme.
• Moderates pace of interview and reviews progress.
• Serves as transitional statement.

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Paraphrasing

• Restating in ones own words the main points of
  consultees statements.
• Conveys understanding.
• Repeats essence of message (Youre telling me
  that...).
• Promotes consultee decision-making.
• Encourages elaboration.

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Listening

• The ability of consultants to capture and
  understand consultees messages.
• The goal is understanding!
• Another purpose of listening is to establish
  rapport.
• Listening demonstrates concern and a desire to
  understand the person and situation.
• Allows you to demonstrate understanding, which is
  important in relationship building.

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Attending

• The consultant is effectively within the
  interview, demonstrated by listening carefully
  and remaining attentive to the consultee.
• The consultant follows what the consultee is
  saying and does not interrupt or jump from
  subject to subject (i.e., pursues issues when
  they arise, and stays with them for a sufficient
  and appropriate amount of time).

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Attending cont.

• Strategies used to orient toward the consultee
  suggests presence.
• S Sit squarely
• H Have an open posture
• A Acknowledge
• R Relax
• E Engage using Eye communication

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Effective Questioning Open Ended Questioning

• The consultant uses open questions
• To elicit examples of specific behaviors
  resulting in a better understanding of what is
  being described by the consultee, and to
• Carefully and selectively encourage consultee
  elaboration, thereby gaining additional pertinent
  information on specific points.

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Effective Questioning Open Ended Questioning
cont.

• Questions should be selected carefully to
• Encourage consultee expressiveness
• Allow a clear and comprehensive picture of the
  situation
• Increase the consultees active participation
• Decrease resistance and defensiveness by trying
  to understand

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Effective Questioning Open Ended Questioning
cont.

• Open questions
• Help begin an interview.
• Encourage consultees to elaborate on a specific
  point.
• Help elicit examples of specific behavior.
• Allow consultant to better understand what is
  being described by consultee.
• Allow consultant to retain control of the
  interview, but convey the fact that the
  relationship is also important.
• See PC Handout 4

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Challenges

• Lack of training in how to effectively consult
  with parents.
• Structural barriers.
• Narrow approach to roles for parents.
• Limited time and resources for consultation.
• Scheduling difficulties.
• Misunderstanding between home and school systems.
• Dealing with and managing conflict.
• Separating the person from the issue.
• Focusing on mutual interests.
• Financial costs.
• Exploring options prior to making decisions.
• Basing decisions on objective information.
• See also Overview of Family-School Partnerships
  Module

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Solutions

• Educate schools systems about parent
  consultation. Explain that it is
• Evidence based
• Cost-effective
• Relatively easy
• Time limited
• Build the bridge between home and school systems.
  
• School psychologists need to educate school
  systems about their role as psychological
  consultants.

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Solutions (continued)

• Allow consultants to have flex time in their
  schedules.
• Establish a cooperative approach that promotes a
  win/win result.
• Focus on positive educational outcomes for
  students.
• Ensure that a reasonable amount of information is
  brought to the table.
• Minimizes potential for emotionally laden
  decisions on both parts.
• Focus on shared goals (e.g., the childs
  success).
• Be involved in policy. Join local, state, and
  federal committees.
• Manage conflict.
• Make positive phone-calls to parents to share
  good news.
• Spend time on connecting families and educators.

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Future Directions

• Employ the use of between group designs to
  contribute to methodological rigor of literature.
• Employ single-participant research designs with
  stronger internal validity (i.e., multiple
  baselines, control for within-subject variance).
• Report effect size in research publications.
• Increase the use of outcome measures with strong
  reliability and validity data.
• Replication studies across consultants and
  participants.
• Extend research findings to parents and teachers
  of middle and high school aged students.
• Investigate effectiveness of parent consultation
  among diverse populations in terms of ethnicity
  and socioeconomic status.

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Future Directions

• Encourage scientist-practitioners to conduct and
  publish evaluations of parent consultation
  services as a school-based intervention service.
• Continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of
  parent consultation for a variety of needs and
  concerns.

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Case Study Jackie

• 4-year-old female
• Caucasian, African-American
• First year in Headstart classroom
• Past experiences in daycare setting

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Preconsultation

• Background
• School
• Headstart classroom with a total of 18 children
• Class from 8am to 1210pm
• After school she goes to a daycare setting
• Home
• Lives with single, working mother

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CNII

• Discuss Strengths
• School
• Intelligent- ready for kindergarten
• Liked by peers
• Creative and imaginative
• Home
• Great imagination
• Smart-Verbalizes well
• Fun-loving
• Both the mother and teacher noted the same
  strengths and this led to bonding

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CNII cont.

• Discuss Needs
• School
• Noncompliance
• Running away
• Dangerous behaviors (e.g. climbing on tables, out
  of sight)
• Home
• Noncompliance
• Bedtime schedule

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CNII cont.

• Desires and Priorities
• School desires
• Compliance
• Decrease disruptive behavior
• Teach child about safety
• Home desires
• To increase positive experiences with child
  (i.e.,improve their relationship)
• To go out in public without problems
• Compliance and less temper tantrums
• Priority the shared desire, Compliance

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CNII cont.

• Define Goals
• School and Home
• Shared goals
• Increase compliance at home and school to improve
  the safety and relationships
• Improve home-school communication
• Increase positive interactions between child and
  teacher and mother

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CNII cont.

• What Has Been Tried?
• School
• They tried talking with her about the problem by
  problem solving and giving her choices
• Relaxation strategies
• Chair away from the group
• Home
• Time-out or take away privileges
• Try to ignore behavior or repeat the request

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CNAI

• Collaborative Plan
• School
• The intervention (a) beat the buzzer, (b) praise
  and a reinforcement program (star program), (c)
  consistent consequence, (d) group positive
  behavior game (tootling program)
• Teacher wanted to expand off already existent
  strategies that were used in the class
• Home
• The intervention (a) praise and reward system
  for behavior at school, (b) active ignoring, (c)
  childs game, and (d) self-coping card for the
  mother

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CPEI

• Observe and Reflect
• School
• Less improvement so everyone discussed possible
  modifications
• Eventually after the last intervention
  improvement with compliance and tantrums occurred
• Home
• Increased compliance at home
• More positive interactions between the mother and
  child
• School and Home
• Less tantrums at both home and school
• School and Home environments are more aware of
  what is occurring in the other setting

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CPEI cont.

• Follow-up
• Another meeting to see if modifications helped
• Planned for kindergarten
• Continue communication between home and school
• Home-visit
• Continue use of strategies at home and school
• Exchange resources

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Views About Process

• Teacher
• She liked the problem solving process
• She liked working with the parents and hearing
  their points of view and ideas for improving
  school
• All the children improved from the group program
• She said she could use this process on her own
  with parents in the future
• Mother
• She said she felt like she learned many
  strategies for helping her child at home and
  school
• She felt like her relationship with her child was
  positive
• She said the process helped her feel comfortable
  talking to the teacher
• See Case Study Handouts 1 2

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Discussion Questions

• See PC Handout 5 for questions for consideration
  or discussion

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References

• Christenson, S. L. Cleary, M. (1990).
  Consultation and the parent-educator partnership
  A perspective. Journal of Educational and
  Psychological Consultation, 1, 219-241.
• Freer, P. Watson, T. S. (1999). A comparison of
  parent and teacher acceptability ratings of
  behavioral and conjoint behavioral consultation.
  School Psychology Review, 28, 672-684.
• Kratochwill, T.R., VanSomeren, K.R., Sheridan,
  S.M. (1989). Training behavioral consultants A
  competency-based model to teach interview skills.
  Professional School Psychology, 4, 41-58.
• Ooms, T., Hara, S. (1991). The family-school
  partnership A critical component of school
  reform. The Family Impact Seminar. Washington,
  DC American Association of Marriage and Family
  Therapy.
• Sheridan, S. M., Eagle, J. W., Cowan, R. J.
  Mickelson, W. (2001). The effects of conjoint
  behavioral consultation results of a 4-year
  investigation. Journal of School Psychology,
  39, 361-385.
• Sheridan, S. M. Kratochwill, T. R. (1992).
  Behavioral parent teacher consultation
  Conceptual and research considerations. Journal
  of School Psychology, 30, 117-139.
• Sheridan, S. M., Kratochwill, T. R. Bergen, J.
  R. (1996). Conjoint behavioral consultation A
  procedural manual. New York Plenum Press.