Get School Psych'd

I hope everyone was able to stay safe and warm over the mini 'snowpocalypse' last week. Personally, I was born and raised in Texas and Dallas is the furthest north I have ever lived. To say the cold makes me grumpy is a bit of an understatement. That said, I am grateful that we are not dealing with the kind of wild weather that we had last year. I am grateful that we did not have any issues with power and were able to mostly continue on in our day to day life (with a little snow day/remote work mixed in).

Stay warm this month!

Keya Saleh, LSSP, NCSP

Region 10 Educational Service Center

February 2022 Legal Update from Perry Zirkel

Dr. Zirkel's monthly update identifies court decisions that address current issues for students with disabilities, including dyslexia identification/ interventions and masking policies.

Stammering May Be Linked With Anxiety in Some Children and Adolescents

Neuroscience News article discussing this study from the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research about the links between stuttering and anxiety in children.

The Science of Math: The Importance of Mastery Measures and the Quest for a General Outcome Measure

The 2nd article in a Communique series about promoting evidence based practices into math assessment and instruction.

Region 10 is excited to announce that we will be offering the 1st annual Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Evaluations (ICE) Symposium in collaboration with Region 11. This all day event will feature a variety of breakout sessions designed to provide all multidisciplinary evaluation team members (LSSPs, Diags, SLPs, OTs, PTs, VI/OM, etc) with valuable insights and information about engaging in more collaborative evaluations.

You can click on the flyer below to register.

New from the Evaluation, Child Find, and ARD Supports Statewide Technical Assistance Network, come check out the Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) Committee Manager Training.

This FREE professional development session is a self-paced, online course that is intended to provide participants with best practices to ARD committee managers for local education agencies (LEAs) that choose to use this model. This course is intended to provide information, guidance, and best practice for successfully achieving the expectations, roles, and responsibilities of an ARD committee manager, including scheduling ARD committee meetings, preparing and finalizing required ARD committee paperwork, facilitating the ARD committee meeting, and supporting families and school personnel with the ARD committee processes.

Click HERE to register for the session. You will need to create an account in order to register (also free).

From Western Psychological Services (WPS):

WPS is making the ADOS-2 Clinical Workshop available in live webinar format! In this two-day workshop, learn how to administer and score the internationally acclaimed Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2).

Upcoming training dates:

March 10-11

April 25-26

• Learn how to use the definitive autism assessment
• Benefit from the experience of an expert ADOS-2 instructor
• Practice scoring while observing ADOS-2 administrations
• Earn 12 continuing education hours

If you are interested in registering for the workshop, please complete the interest form to request your spot. The two-day live webinar runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time both days; $525 includes the two-day live webinar and Pre- and Post-course Materials. Cost does not include the ADOS-2 Manual, which is required reading and is sold separately. Please visit the WPS website for course details, including learning objectives, special needs requests, and continuing education credit information for the live webinar.

Please see the research opportunity below if interested:

Dear Colleague,

We are inviting you to participate in our research study examining school psychologists’ practices and decision making as they relate to the assessment of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Project Title: School Psychologists’ Practices and Decision-Making Related to Emotional Disturbance Identification

Study Rationale: We believe this research is important for a variety of reasons. Previous research has established that Emotional Disturbance (ED) assessment practices remain variable among school psychologists. These differences, among other factors, make ED eligibility determination particularly complex for school psychologists and multidisciplinary teams. Moreover, despite increased attention, disproportionate identification practices persist and specific groups of students continue to be overrepresented in this IDEA category. It is imperative to understand school psychologist ED assessment practices and decision making. With a better understanding, training programs and professional development endeavors can highlight areas of assessment and decision making strength and focus on the development of the skills needed to ensure school psychologists are engaging in practices that are equitable, supported by the field, research based, and legally defensible.

Research Aim: The primary aim of this research is to re-examine school psychologists’ reported practices, in addition to the factors that inform their decision-making, as they pertain to the special education category, Emotional Disturbance. In addition to assessing school psychologist assessment practices, survey respondents will answer questions intended to shed light on how they operationalize many of the seemingly nebulous constructs that comprise the federal criteria, guidelines, and qualifying indicators for classifying students under the ED category.

What is asked of you? If you choose to participate, you will complete a survey that includes questions related to your assessment of students with social, emotional, and behavioral needs and respective decision-making practices. The survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. Participation is completely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time. The survey is confidential. Your individual answers will NOT be linked to your name or personally identifying information in any report of the data.

Please contact Dr. Timothy Hanchon at The Citadel with any questions or comments using the contact information provided below. Thank you for your consideration.

If you would like to participate, please follow this link:

ED Practices Survey

Tim Hanchon, Ph.D., NCSP (tim.hanchon@citadel.edu)

Jessica Dirsmith, D.Ed., NCSP (dirsmithj@duq.edu)

I have always gotten a lot of questions about the books I am reading (mostly because approximately 84% of my sentences start with "you know I just read this book..."), so I decided to start sharing some of my personal favorites that I have recently read (or in some cases, reread).

This month: Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion by Wendy Suziki

I feel like typing this out might get things thrown at me. Good Anxiety??!?!?! I will say that this book was awesome. Dr. Suzuki digs into the science and history of anxiety in a way that gives us ideas and strategies for dealing with what is shaping up to be the word of 2022. Highly recommend.

If you have any questions or need support in your campus/district, give me a shout!

Email: keya.saleh@region10.org
Website: www.region10.org/programs/evaluation-special-education/overview/
Location: 904 Abrams Road, Richardson, TX, USA
Phone: 972-348-1598
Twitter: @getschoolpsychd