HOME-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS - A BEHAVIORAL-COMMUNITY APPROACH TO CHILDHOOD BEHAVIOR DISORDERS

Although behaviour therapy with families has advanced understanding of family dynamics and effective intervention, parent training procedures continue to have limitations, with the most socially disadvantaged families usually the least likely to be the recipients of professional services. Schools, on the other hand, provide an available, community-based setting where parents could receive support. Here again, however, practical difficulties exist, with the families of children showing academic and behavioural problems often uninvolved in typical school programmes. To link home and school in a partnership for resolving children's behaviour problems, a home visitor protocol was designed that incorporated brief behaviour therapy strategies and the strengthening of communication between teacher and parent. While the referred children showed improvement, there were few variables which revealed significant differences between experimental and control children. There was some indication that teachers referred more problematic children to the active treatment group. Future research will explore how the protocol can be strengthened to provide effective mental health services via the natural ecology of the school.