Adults as change agents: Applications of behavioral consultation.

Abstract

Suppose you are a beginning second-grade teacher who is experiencing great difficulty with a student named Jerry. It seems Jerry is out of controldisrupting children around him and interfering with your attempts to teach the class. To deal with this situation, you decide to meet with the school psychologist, Dr. Smith. In the first session, Dr. Smith asks you to describe in observable terms what you mean by Jerry being "disruptive" and "interfering." In reply to her series of questions, you inform Dr. Smith that Jerry (a) is generally a capable student but often leaves his seat for several minutes at a time while you are busy working with a small group, and he is among the students who are supposed to be doing independent math work, and (b) repeatedly calls out answers without raising his hand when you are teaching phonics. Dr. Smith then asks you to describe what is going on in the classroom before, during, and after Jerry leaves his seat and blurts out answers. This meeting ends with Dr. Smith's request that you keep track of how often these two problem