8-1 intervention

Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric.html

PSY 636 Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric

Prompt

As part of this course, you must write short papers on different topics pertaining to intervention strategies. While the topics vary, your papers, at a minimum, should do the following:

• Answer the question or address the issue(s) the instructions describe.
• Include your perspective, when applicable, and share your opinion or explain your rationale for your position.
• Be sure to support your responses with scholarly research, and include references and citations for material presented that is not your own original work. You can use the first person (I, my, etc.) to indicate your opinion in lieu of listing yourself as a source.

What to Submit

Short papers should follow these formatting guidelines: 2–4 pages, double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and citations in APA format.

Short Paper Rubric

Reading and Resources7.html

Shapiro Library Reading: Sample Psychological Assessment Reports Review the psychological assessment reports in the resources below. Choose one to evaluate in the short paper assignment.

• Essentials of Assessment Report Writing, Chapter 12: Annotated Case Reports Chapter 12, “Annotated Case Reports,” has three cases on children and adolescents and includes the psychological assessment report for each.
• Psychological Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Adolescents, Appendix: Case Studies This appendix includes six cases for children ages 6–17 who were clients of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Psychology Clinic. Each case study includes psychological assessment results.

Shapiro Library Article:  Best Practices for Evaluation and Treatment of Agitated Children and Adolescents (BETA) in the Emergency Department This article describes a multimodal approach psychology experts developed to manage agitated children and adolescents in a hospital emergency department.

Reading: Testing and Assessment To access the APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation, scroll down to the Reports section and click on the link to the guidelines PDF. This resource includes competence guidelines for professionals who conduct psychological assessments and information on how to select and administer tests. 

Reading: Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct This resource from the American Psychological Association is a guide to ethical issues psychologists face and how to deal with them.

Module Overview17.html

Report Writing

Psychological testing is guided by each patient’s specific needs. Testing may include cognitive, projective/personality, and selected neuropsychological measures. A professional conducting a psychiatric evaluation of a child or adolescent faces two important questions:

• Does this child have a disorder?
• If the child has a disorder, what is the correct diagnosis?

Without a diagnosis, treatment recommendations are not possible. The psychological test report of a child should clearly answer these questions.

A psychological report should include the following elements:

• A brief listing or description of the assessments used
• Psychological history that explains why testing should occur
• List of symptoms the proposed testing would adequately assess
• A summary section that explains the scores and provides clear reasons for specific diagnoses (diagnostic rationale)
• Recommendations for proven (research-supported) strategies and treatments to address identified problems
• Recommendations for educational strategies to best meet the child’s or adolescent’s needs (including eligibility for school services, if warranted)
• List of the youth’s unique strengths and areas to target for change
• List of any appropriate diagnoses
• Appendix with a complete presentation of all scores from all tests given

According to Abrahams et al. (2019), psychological assessments should focus on socio-emotional skills that enhance adaptive functioning in children and youth. The development of personal strengths can serve as tools to foster positive outcomes and prevent negative ones. Differences between adaptive and maladaptive functioning are considered to be more quantitative than qualitative. Growing evidence suggests that this perspective is useful for looking at many types of problem behavior in childhood and adolescence.

Psychological testing is a good tool to use when the professional is looking to support a suspected diagnosis. Psychological test reports can be shared with other professionals in a child’s or adolescent’s life. The report should be as accurate and customized as possible to that specific child to be useful. A child or adolescent could be retested, depending on the situation. Retesting usually happens if the youth has made improvements or a decline in the mental concern is observed. Testing may be repeated after a certain number of years. For example, if a child is tested at age five, testing will likely be repeated at age seven due to intellectual, emotional, and behavioral growth. All reports written about children or adolescents stay in their files and follow them throughout their lives. Professionals should always be aware of this record retention and be ready to support their reports.

References

Abrahams, L., Pancorbo, G., Primi, R., Santos, D., Kyllonen, P., John, O. P., & De Fruyt, F. (2019). Social-emotional skill assessment in children and adolescents: Advances and challenges in personality, clinical, and educational contexts. Psychological Assessment 31(4), 460.

Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric.html

PSY 636 Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric

Prompt

As part of this course, you must write short papers on different topics pertaining to intervention strategies. While the topics vary, your papers, at a minimum, should do the following:

• Answer the question or address the issue(s) the instructions describe.
• Include your perspective, when applicable, and share your opinion or explain your rationale for your position.
• Be sure to support your responses with scholarly research, and include references and citations for material presented that is not your own original work. You can use the first person (I, my, etc.) to indicate your opinion in lieu of listing yourself as a source.

What to Submit

Short papers should follow these formatting guidelines: 2–4 pages, double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and citations in APA format.

Short Paper Rubric