Effectiveness of school-based mental health playgroups for diagnosable and at-risk preschool children.

Risk factors during preschool years, such as poverty and unattended social/emotional problems, are known to have a strong negative influence on children's later functioning. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an on-site integrated school-based mental health services and consultation program for preschool children and their families. The sample consisted of 47 children and parents in 3 childcare centers who came from low-socioeconomic, urban backgrounds. Parents provided questionnaire data on children's social-emotional functioning at 2 assessment times. Children's ages ranged between 2 and 4 years at Time 1. Approximately half of the sample consisted of children who were selected for and received twice-weekly peer play psychotherapy (PPP) and, at-times, other mental health services from clinicians (playgroup [PG] children). The other half of the sample consisted of better functioning non-playgroup (NPG) children from the same centers. When PG and NPG were compared at Time1, the PG children were significantly behind the NPG children justifying their assignment to PG. However, at Time 2, the difference between PG and NPG was no longer significant on vital measures of adaptation, revealing the ways in which Relationships for Growth & Learning (RfGL) Program arguably led to 'catch up'. PG children's behavioral problems and total symptomatology decreased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2. Higher dosage of PPP was linked with higher social competence and decreased behavioral problems. Areas of gain differed between internalizing and externalizing children, indicating that intervention was helpful to different types of children. Clinical and research implications were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Embracing complexity across disciplines: Reflective supervision and postdegree training integrate mental health concepts with speech-language therapy and graduate education.

This article illustrates how relationship-based practice and reflective supervision can augment the practice of professionals in allied health disciplines in the earliest childhood fields. The authors describe how mental health constructs were integrated into the discipline-specific expertise of one speech-language pathologist and how, in turn, that affected her leadership as graduate program director. The article highlights the transformations that took place within one discipline through the assimilation of a transdisciplinary, relationship-based, and reflective model. The ongoing individual and group supervision of a speech-language pathologist through an intensive, reflective, 2-year experience in a postdegree certificate training program is described to explore the change process; a detailed analysis of one case is used to illustrate shifts in clinical practice and the broadening of theoretical paradigms. Further, the authors illustrate how the graduate program director implemented the use of these constructs with clinical supervisors at her university upon completion of the postdegree training program so that the supervisors could, in turn, introduce and use them with their graduate students. Finally, the benefits, concerns, and limitations of engaging in transdisciplinary work are briefly addressed.