School-Based Consultations Free Essays

Behavioral model looks closely at the behaviors of the victims, by going back by collecting data on their behavioral history. The behavioral modeling is meant to assess at the behavioral patterns of an individual from the past and relate to them to the present, know why individual is behaving in that strange manners, whether the causes for the behavior change could be the family, environment, the friends, the workplace or the community and then look for strategies that can assist in correcting the behavior. In behavioral modeling the consultant should look for ways of trying to modify the behavior of the boy and also know why the boy is behaving in that strange way. We will write a custom essay sample on School-Based Consultations or any similar topic only for you Order Now Within an overall setting of concern for the boy’s interest, the consultant’s intervention falls into one of the following categories; a) prescriptive which is about giving advice and instructions and being directive and critical, b) informative by imparting new knowledge, instructing and interpreting, c) confronting which is challenging a restrictive attitude or direct feedback within a caring context, d) carthartic, which is seeking to release emotion in the form of laughter, trembling and anger, e)catalytic which is encouraging the boy to discover and explore his own latent thoughts and feelings and f) supportive which is offering comfort and approval, affirming the boy’s intrinsic value. On the setting and background issues, the consultant should be prepared fully for the job. He/she should have all the necessary background information about the boy to be talked. The consultant should at least be briefed by the teacher on what has been done and areas which need to be looked at, such that when handling the boy, it could be easy to approach him and know what kind of questions to ask him. The place/room should be set for the consultation exercise and it should be convenient to the boy. The boy should be psychologically prepared for the exercise for it to be successful. The goals of consultation are to engage experienced and qualified personnel in a particular field from outside the institution, family, school organization or any set up so as to be able to handle a particular issue or problem from a different perspective without influence from any body. The consultant is supposed to be a person who is highly qualified and who has been in the field/profession for a long time and has that experience which is needed to handle a particular issue without any problem. The consultant should be a person who has good morals, follows the laid down professional ethics and codes of conduct and who respects his/her clients without regarding their age but treating them with much respect and care. They are supposed to be people who are highly dependable because their end product will be an important document which will be used to enforce or implement drastic measures that are meant to improve the present condition of a person from worse to better. For any consultancy to be undertaken, the consultant should be interviewed to find out whether he/she will be able to handle the problem at hand. This is meant to save time and get the expected results at the end of the consultancy. On the side of the consultee (the boy), the consultant should find out whether has had any encounter with any consultant previously and know how they interacted. The boy should at least be aware what consultations means and what is required of him during the exercise. The model coordinates a set of what is called steps which should answer two pertinent questions; when should each step be taken? and when are the inputs to each step determined? The steps include the following; a) Initiating a session-the consultant should first initiate a session for discussion. He/she should introduce him/herself to the boy so that the boy could be aware of who he is going to discuss with. The initial rapport will determine on how the discussion will flow. The consultant should tell the boy what he expects from him and the boy should be given time to decide if he will be willing to talk to the consultant. b) Find out about the historical background of the family/ information gathering- the consultant should critically look at the behavioral patterns of the boy’s family before making conclusions. He should find whether really the father’s sickness affects his performance. Are there other members of the family who are still in school and have been affected by the same? The consultant should find out whether if the boy was counseled previously and if there was any impact. He should compare the academic performance of the boy before the father was sick and during the time he is sick and then come up with a conclusion. It may be possible that the boy could be using the father’s sickness to perform poorly. At the same time if the family belongs to a fundamentalist religious sect that had been subject to investigative journalism into alleged mind control by a national news show, this can also change the boy’s behavior. The fundamentalist sects teach their followers on radical issues which completely changes the mind and behavior settings of their followers. Too much of radicalism and fundamentalism might have entered into the boys mind and changed him completely and thus affected his academic performance. The behavior patterns of the boy should be traced from the time he joined the fundamentalist religious sect and at the same time look at the behavioral patterns of the other family members. c) Explaining and planning-this is the best moment for the consultant to provide the correct amount and type of information that is required from the boy. Some information may not be necessary and it is up to the consultant to control the discussion with the boy and stick only to the topic so as not to waste time on matters that will not be helpful. The consultant should also make the boy recall of his worst behavioral acts such that these can bring the boy closer into condemning himself but at the same time trying to create a behavioral change within himself without being forced. This is meant to achieving a shared understanding between the boy and the consultant and makes a way for a shared decision making. d) Isolation- the boy should be isolated from others, but two or three people should be with him to give him company and must be visited to monitor on his behavioral change. The consultants should in isolation with the boy study his behaviors and know what is really happening. He should dig deep into the past history of the boy, the behaviors of the family and the circumstances that have made him to behave like so. This information can only be gotten from the boy when he is alone with the consultant whereby he has the freedom of expressing himself freely. When a victim of the circumstance is mixed with people of the same problem it becomes very difficult to get information from him/her because those who are with that person may influence his/her answering to the questions asked. Isolation does not mean that the boy should be completely isolated from other children or the family but put in isolation when talking to the consultant. The consultant must also make sure that the isolation process does not affect the boy but improves his concentration during the discussion exercise. ) Show the paternal and maternal love-the consultant should at his/her level best the paternal and maternal love to the boy. The boy may have been affected by the father’s sickness in that the boy might have been very close to his father and now he is sick and maybe admitted in the hospital. The boy is missing the paternal love from the time the father became sick. This has stressed the by to a point he can’t perform well in class. This is something very important that the consultant should look at keenly. Every person needs the love of both parents to grow and develop normally and if the boy is missing the love and absence of the father, his mind set and behavior will change. The teacher may conclude that the boy’s behaviors have change including his performance and that he is using the father’s sickness to perform poorly without considering that, true the father’s sickness is a contributing factor to his behavioral changes and poor academic performance. f) Become closer to the boy- the consultant should develop a very close relationship with the boy. He should make the boy to be comfortable with him/her all the time they will be spending together. The consultant should not be sympathetic to the boy as this will worsen the situation but should make sure that boy understands what he is going through and should develop a positive attitude towards change as this will be for the benefit of his psychological well being. The consultant must also involve the friends of the boy to find out more about the boy’s behavior when they are together. The friends should be encouraged to talk to the boy on changing his behavior pattern and they should at the same time tell him the consequences of his changed bad behavior in a friendlier manner. The consultant should even take the boy away from the school if the boy feels that the place is uncomfortable for him for discussions. This will give the boy more freedom to express himself and will build confidence and trust between him and the consultant. It is up to the consultant also to build the rust and confidence with the boy and this will depend as to how she/he will handle himself/herself towards the boy. The consultant must also involve the family members who should be urged to become closer to the boy. May be the mother is very busy attending to the husband’s sickness and so there is no one to even help the boy to relieve the tensions and stresses that are disturbing his well being. The family members and friends should play a bigger role in modeling the behavior of this boy through being closer and talking positively to him and infact this will make the boy to change his attitudes. g) The consultant should start counseling the boy on issues relating to what is happening to him. He should handle the boy with all the respect he needs and should prepare him fully for the counseling sessions. The counseling should not be made to blame him for his bad behaviors but should be meant to mould his behavior for better. The consultant should arrange the counseling sessions with the boy and should not be forced to attend the sessions. The consultant should in the process of counseling the boy be able to give the boy real life examples or show the boy video pictures of the boys of similar age of him, what they underwent and its consequences. From this point of view, the boy will be able to make a decision by himself without being forced but will have to be given options from which he can choose what is best for him. h) The consultant should avoid as much as possible condemning the boy for his bad behaviors but make him realize that his behaviors are not generally agreeable to he teachers and every body and so there is need for him to change. May be the boy has developed enemies including his teachers, but should try and reconcile with them. Since the boy has joined the fundamentalist religious sect, the consultant should not condemn the sect too much to a point of telling the boy that those in the sect have very bad behaviors, but should a look for away of explaining to the boy on the bad side of joining the sect and its negative effects on an individuals mind and behavior. i) The consultant should hold discussions with the teachers of the boy to gather more information about him. The teachers can also contribute towards the behavioral change and attitudes of the boy. There could be teachers instead of helping the boy to improve his performance are always condemning him of his failure. The consultant should request for the records of the boy from the class teacher which will give more information about the boy academic performance and the behavioral records. The teachers should explain to the consultant as to why they are concerned that the boy may be using the father’s illness as an excuse not to performing well academically or there are other hindering factors not including the boy not liking math and science subjects. The consultant should explain to the teachers that the boy says that he doesn’t like the teachers who do not take time to listen to him. ) The consultant should consider telling the boy that if he develops a positive attitude towards maths and sciences and if he concentrates more on his studies than in the fundamentalist sect, he will perform better and will be rewarded for this. This will be a roadway to behavioral change as the boy will be challenged to critically think and analyze his present behavior and its rewards and then measure it with what could become if he changes completely and its rewards. The rewards are meant to give morale and change the reasoning of the boy in that good behavior comes with good things. k) The consultant should make an effort of visiting the boy’s father privately to explain to him that his sickness has greatly affected the boy’s performance. The consultant should encourage the sick father to talk to the boy to change his attitude even though the sickness has affected his behavior and performance. At the same time, the consultant should visit the hospital with the boy so that they can have a discussion together. The father should encourage the boy to work harder in class and put aside his sickness as he (the boy) must continue normally with life and should have faith that father will get well quickly. If the parents of the boys are also members of the fundamentalist religious sect, the consultant should talk with them and express his concern about the boy’s behavior and at the same time discuss with them about how their sect is being discussed on national television and explain how this has affected the boy’s behavior and performance. This will give them food for thought and at the end of it all, they will sit down as a family and discuss seriously about this issue. l) If there is need to change the school where the boy is learning to a different new one, the change for the class teacher or the subject masters in the present school as per the recommendation of the consultant, it should be implemented. The general environment of the school can change the behaviors of the child for better or for worse. The boy should be made to make a wise decision and based on what the consultant will recommend, a shared and common decision will be made without hurting or influencing anyone. If it is found that the teachers handling maths and science subjects are bullying the boy because he is weak in those subjects, they should be told and be changed as may be there could be other children who are affected in the same way and have developed a negative attitude towards the teachers and the subjects and so their behaviors. This should be corrected earlier enough before the situation becomes a crisis. The implication for practice is to give the best professional advice to those clients who need the services. The services are about giving hope and bring change to the affected victims, their family members, friends and the community at large. Consultancy comes in when other alternatives have failed and this is regarded as the last resort as it gives recommendations which give the right way forward on what should be done to arrest the situation. Since the practice is more professional, it means that the end results will be practical and will provide a solution which will be workable and acceptable by all. Conclusion For any problem which arises, an approach has to be found. This approach should be relevant and should be able to solve the problem. Solving an issue related to the behavior of a human being needs a lot of time, commitment and perseverance. The person who has the problem should not be hurried or be blamed for the mistakes they have made or for their bad behaviors. They should be made to realize that what they are doing is not right and so should change for the better of their well being. Concerted efforts must be made by those who can be able to help the victims of the circumstance to change. Change is not forced but it is a process which takes time and it will depend on the individual’s behavior and attitude towards the change which could be good or bad. Consultants should handle their work more professionally because they are paid for their services. The end result must be acceptable and should provide a way forward on how a crisis will be solved. Finally the consultants should make follow ups on their clients to find out whether there is any positive change or a correction has to be made. How to cite School-Based Consultations, Papers