Perspectives on specialization in school psychology training and practice

Abstract

School psychology is a professional practice specialty in the broader field of the profession of psychology. As such, the discipline of school psychology must meet certain standards and criteria to retain its identity and official designation as a professional specialty. Likewise, practitioners of school psychology are professionals themselves and must meet standards and criteria of preparation and continuing education to maintain their professional status. The growth of knowledge and the demands being made on school psychologists to acquire a broad range of knowledge and skills in sufficient depth to allow competent practice is outstripping the reasonableness of training in the field, which assumes that school psychologists should be competent to practice in all areas of practice demand. Specialization within the field of school psychology, a de facto but officially unrecognized occurrence in many areas for at least several decades, offers a solution to this dilemma of training and practice and should be formally recognized and promoted by the profession. C 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.School psychology was one of the originally designated areas of professional specialization and practice within the broader field of psychology. To maintain its designation as a professional specialty, the discipline of school psychology must pass review (currently every 7 years) by the Council on the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA), the organization designated by the federal government as the body to accredit doctoral training programs in psychology. School psychology, however, is practiced primarily at the level of the nondoctoral professional, but this does not, and cannot, lead to less attendance to the characteristics of a profession and professional preparation in school psychology. Nevertheless, nondoctoral training has always faced a special set of challenges in the preparation of school psychologists as competent, independent practitioners.Professions have been defined for several hundred years and in different ways (e.g., Friedson, 1986, Dezalay & Sugarman, 1995. However, there are clear, common elements to the approach to defining a profession and distinguishing professions from other forms of work. A profession is an occupationally related social institution with at least five major characteristics: 1. A profession obtains a high level of public trust. People come to us to seek out our opinions on matters of great importance in their lives and trust us to have the training and expertise to answer their questions in ways that are beneficial and reflect the underlying science of the profession. 2. A profession provides essential services to society. School psychologists provide a service that is considered essential to our society (not necessarily to all societies or even subcultures within our larger culture-there are organized groups and subcultures in the United States that are adamantly opposed to psychology in general and that ar...

School Psychologists’ Continuing Professional Development Preferences and Practices

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School‐based Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion Management Program

“…Demands for areas of expertise and for competence in various domains of practice within the field of school psychology are leading practitioners to consider adopting specialized roles within the field (Fagan, ; Miller, DeOrnellas, & Maricle, ; Reynolds, ). However, most graduate programs train students broadly, particularly in specialist‐level programs.…”

“…With appropriate training, school psychologists could specialize in diverse areas, including “autism, childhood schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, profound intellectual disabilities, and a variety of chronic illnesses” (Reynolds, , p. 926); other areas of specialization include “early childhood assessment, child abuse, crisis intervention, vocational and career development, reading disabilities, curriculum‐based assessment, giftedness, secondary and postsecondary settings, or neuropsychology” (Fagan, , pp.6–7), as well as pervasive developmental disabilities assessment and intervention, and behavioral consultation, assessment, and intervention (Miller et al., ).…”