OVERVIEW

What are the most common problems or challenges among students that teachers face in classrooms, especially ones for which they often seek advice or assistance? What are practical and evidence-based interventions and supports for the school and home that a school psychologist, a school intervention or support team, or other mental health and educational specialists might recommend? These two questions guided the development of Helping Handouts: Supporting Children at School and Home.

The publication consists of 87 handouts for the school, home, or both, divided into six sections: (1) Academic Concerns; (2) Social and Behavioral Concerns; (3) Emotional Concerns; (4) Other Family, Health, and Developmental Concerns; (5) Disabilities and Other Special Populations; and (6) Additional Interventions and Supports for Multiple Concerns. Each handout is authored or coauthored by an expert on the topic, with many of the authors being leading researchers in their fields. Authors were challenged to write a brief and concise handout on their topic, with the primary emphasis on recommendations that might be given to teachers, parents, or others who respond to the child's needs. In addition to providing practical and evidence-based interventions and supports, each handout recommends additional resources on the handout's topic.

Unlike the previous three editions of Helping Children at Home and School, the handouts in Helping Handouts: Supporting Children at School and Home are smaller in number, much more focused, and aimed primarily for teachers and parents.Thus, they do not attempt to cover the full range of child development and challenges faced by children, families, educators, and other professionals” as found in the 300+ handouts of the third edition Helping Children at Home and School.The current handouts are for school psychologists to use, but not to guide them in policies, procedures, or assessment practices (Best Practices in School Psychology better serves that function). Instead, the primary focus is on how teachers and parents might address or respond to the most common concerns or problems seen in youth. Recommendations include ways to reduce the problem behavior, replace it with appropriate alternative behaviors, and prevent its recurrence.This is particularly true for Sections 1-4. Sections 5 and 6 differ, however, from the preceding sections.That is, handouts in Section 5, Disabilities and Other Special Populations, do not target common concerns or problems at school or home. Instead, they provide recommendations for working with special populations or specific groups of students that often require interventions and supports beyond those typically provided to all children. Populations included in this section are children with disabilities, English language learners, gifted and talented children, and immigrant and refugee students.

Section 6, Additional Interventions and Supports for Multiple Concerns, consists of four handouts that did not quite fit any of the other five sections.The need for these handouts was determined upon finding that certain recommendations were being repeated across multiple handouts, and without sufficient details about how to best implement them.That is, multiple authors recommended the use of praise and reward, positive teacher–studentrelationships, and good parenting practices at home. Several also highly recommended the evidence-based Good Behavior Game for the classroom.Thus, handouts were developed for each of those four topics.

TARGET AUDIENCE

It is anticipated that the handouts will be valuable to school psychologists as attachments to their psychological reports or to integrate into reports, but also to other psychologists and mental health specialists, physicians, and educators working with teachers and parents in the contexts of individual or team-based consultation and interventions, and in training workshops.The publication also should be useful to graduate students in school psychology programs and related fields, providing them with knowledge of best practices for responding to the most common concerns of teachers and parents.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

George G. Bear, PhD, is a professor of school psychology at the University of Delaware, and recipient of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of School Psychologists. Prior to joining the faculty at the university, Dr. Bear worked as a school psychologist in Iowa and Virginia. Until recently, he continued to work one day weekly as a school psychologist in a public or private school. He is the author of over a hundred journal articles and book chapters, written primarily on the topics of classroom management, school discipline, school climate, and children's social, emotional, and moral development. His eight books include Developing Self-Discipline and Preventing and Correcting Misbehavior, School Discipline and Self-Discipline: A Practical Guide to Promoting Prosocial Student Behavior; and Children's Needs: Development, Prevention, and Intervention (coedited with Dr. Kathleen Minke).

Kathleen Minke, PhD, is Executive Director of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Previously, she was a professor of school psychology at the University of Delaware. She is a licensed psychologist in Maryland and has experience as a school psychologist in Indiana and Virginia. She has published multiple articles and chapters on family-school collaboration, parent-teacher relationships, and professional issues in school psychology. She coedited several NASP publications including Children's Needs: Development, Prevention, and Intervention and Preventing School Problems Promoting School Success: Strategies and ProgramsThat Work (coedited with Dr. George Bear). Her contributions to this publication primarily occurred prior to her employment with NASP.