| Despite the need for early identification and intensive intervention for social emotional concerns in young children, there exists a shortage of personnel trained to provide mental health services with early childhood populations (Klien & Gilkerson, 2000). The purpose of this study was to examine, through descriptive survey research, the current status of preservice school psychology training in relation to the assessment of social-emotional development in preschool children. Specifically, this study sought to explore the training school psychology programs offer, in preparing preservice school psychologists to provide mental health services for preschool populations, and evaluate the perceptions of trainers and students regarding the coursework, competencies and instruments necessary for preparing school psychologists to provide social-emotional assessment and mental health services in early childhood settings. Participants in this study included 108 program directors (trainers) of school psychology training programs within the United States, as well as 4 advanced level students from each program, randomly selected from the master's/specialists ( n = 151) and doctoral level (n = 74) of study in each program; a total of 225 students. Two corresponding forms of the "Preschool Social-Emotional Assessment Training" questionnaire were developed for this study. Each questionnaire was worded appropriately for the different groups of respondents. The questionnaire items were developed based upon two previous studies conducted by Boyer (1996) and Gettinger, Stoiber, Goetz and Caspe (1999), and the current literature concerning the preparation of school psychologists and related service personnel in the delivery of early childhood metal health assessment and intervention services. |
