Reviews

Parent Collaboration for Intervention

Collaborative Home/School Interventions: Evidence-Based Solutions for Emotional, Behavioral, and Academic Problems
By G. G. Peacock & B. R. Collett
2010, Guilford
Reviewed by John Mark Froiland & Liana Smith

Despite mounting evidence that family–school collaboration promotes healthy childhood outcomes, many school psychologists lack confidence in fostering such partnerships (Manz, Mautone, Martin, 2009). This book explains how school psychologists can meaningfully involve families in research-based interventions for children who are struggling significantly. In order to facilitate parental buy-in, the introductory chapter includes an explanation of how to apply the basics of motivational interviewing to parent consultation. The next chapter explains how to utilize a problem-solving model, which aligns with parents’ desire to simply see their children significantly improve. The remaining three chapters delve into engaging families in interventions for externalizing, internalizing, and academic problems, respectively.

In order to facilitate the generalization of behavioral improvements beyond the classroom, it is beneficial to involve both teachers and parents in interventions. The authors thoroughly explain how parents can be involved in research-based treatments for externalizing problems such as behavioral parent training, collaborative problem solving, and home-based rewards and consequences for behavior at school. In describing how to approach internalizing disorders, the authors cogently explain how to directly provide research-based interventions for the child, while facilitating parental understanding and support for the interventions. They also clearly describe how to deal with various responses that parents commonly have to different intervention components, so that the reader is better prepared to deal with common misunderstandings or objections and can frame ideas in a way that will more likely resonate with parents.

Parents’ involvement in their children’s education is linked to positive academic outcomes; therefore, it is crucial to involve parents in the academic intervention process. The authors explain that functional assessments often indicate that children need interventions addressing the following: more motivation to start or finish the schoolwork, more time to practice the skill, corrective feedback, or assignments that are optimally challenging (neither too easy nor too difficult). The school psychologist can use this information to work with parents to develop a successful intervention. Since children often do not want to do academic work, the authors describe ways for parents to help increase their children's extrinsic motivation at home. The handouts at the end of this chapter describe detailed interventions for reading, mathematics, writing, and homework.

This book provides various useful reproducible sheets for practitioners that can enhance parent interviews, intervention implementation, and progress monitoring. Whereas the majority of the content will provide school psychologists with insight into family collaboration, there are sections in which the content is primarily suitable for graduate students (e.g., when diagnostic classifications are reviewed). Overall, this book does an excellent job of explaining how school psychologists can actively engage parents in evidence-based interventions.

Reference

Manz, P. H., Mautone, J. A., & Martin, J. A. (2009). School psychologists’ collaborations with families: An exploratory study of the interrelationships of their perceptions of professional efficacy and school climate, and demographic and training variables. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 25, 47–70.

John Mark Froiland, PhD, NCSP, is an assistant professor in the department of school psychology at the University of Northern Colorado. Liana Smith is a doctoral student and a graduate assistant at the University of Northern Colorado.



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