Effective psychological reports are consumer-focused: They address the concerns of the referring persons, present data appropriately, communicate clearly and concisely, and include useful and appropriate recommendations. Although the importance of clear communication has been stressed repeatedly, psychologists often write reports that are very difficult for nonpsychologists to read. In this article, the author explores four reasons behind this dichotomy: (a) model reports available to psychologists in training are written at a level that is very difficult to understand; (b) psychological terms are not commonly defined; (c) the amount of time it takes to write easily understood reports is substantial; and (d) psychologists are confused about how to address multiple audiences. Methods to address each issue are discussed.

Psychological reports serve several purposes, including communicating information about a client's functioning and recommending interventions. To accomplish these purposes, reports must be clearly written and easily understood. Since the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, clients and parents commonly have access to reports. However, psychologists working in schools, clinics, and independent practice often write reports at levels higher than the education level of their audience, particularly parents. An example of rewriting to a simpler level is presented. Periodic evaluation of reading levels of reports may help psychologists write clearer reports.Authors of texts used in assessment courses commonly recommend that psychological reports be written in a readable manner

Previous studies suggest that the majority of school psychologists do not believe they receive sufficient supervision, despite a growing body of research providing empirical support for supervision to maintain and improve skills. This study explores the dynamics underlying the challenges of providing adequate supervision to school psychologists. Findings suggest that supervision of school psychologists is characterized by challenges that extend beyond the traditional demarcations of clinical and administrative supervision typical in clinical settings. Supervisors of school psychologists encounter systemic challenges, unique to school settings, which must be addressed for their supervisees to be able to function successfully. The findings suggest that a clinicaladministrative -systemic model of supervision is most appropriate in the supervision of school psychologists. C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This research examined the parent role as perceived by a large number of parents of school-age children in New Hampshire. The results reveal that these parents readily describe a parent role using the same characteristics that emerge from the research literature. More importantly, the subjects consider each of the six parent role characteristics as differentially important at different stages in children's development. The implications of this research for school psychologists are many, including, for instance, assessment, consultation, and intervention.

The Parent Role Questionnaire (PRQ) is a recently developed instrument to study individual perceptions of the parent role. The PRQ was piloted, revised, and studied psychometrically. This study examines PRQ internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity. Results reveal that the instrument has relatively high internal consistency, moderate test-retest reliability, and high validity. The discussion includes implications for further research and study on parents, parenting, and the parent role.Increasingly, the fields of education, medicine, and psychology are addressing the needs of at-risk and handicapped young children and their families. Indeed, the recent legislation, PL 99-457, mandates services to the handicapped preschool population and encourages states to provide services to at-risk and handicapped infants and toddlers. The net result of increased interest and service delivery to the young handicapped population is the absolute recognition of the importance of parents in their children's developmental progress. To be sure, the federal legislation mandates that parents are an integral part of all phases of the process to assess and provide special services to their at-risk and handicapped children.Although educators and psychologists have long recognized the key role that parents play in children's development, little research has been conducted specifically on parents. For the most part, research has considered general demographic variables related to parents (e.g., sex, age, educational background, marital status, and socioeconomic status) or a specific aspect of the parent role such as disciplinary style (e.g., Baumrind, 1971) rather than what individuals do as parents. This lack of awareness of parent role complexity has left professionals with little theoretical or other understanding of what professionals expect parents to do in their parenting role. Thus, it is often unclear how educators and psychologists, as well as parents, perceive the parent role. As a result, there are few avenues or access points to talk with parents about what they can or should do differently to better meet their children's needs (and the opportunity for misunderstandings between the two parties is great).For instance, when a school psychologist talks with a parent about the parent's child, in what context is the psychologist speaking (e.g., are the recommendations about the parent's discipline or the parent's responsiveness to their child)? What does the psychologist want the parent to do as a consequence of their communication (e.g., pay more attention to the child or oversee the completion of homework assignments)? What difference might the psychologist's efforts make in terms of the other aspects of the parent's role (e.g., if the parent increases his or her disciplinary behavior, what is the Requests for reprints should be sent to Barbara A. Mowder,