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Indirect work of school psychologists has not actualized itself widely in everyday practices. To understand this contradiction, the working environment of school psychologists, that is, the school, is worthy of closer examination. In the present study, we wanted to find out which factors affect school professionals' perceptions of school psychologists' functions. School professionals (teachers, principals, school nurses, and physicians) in 67 regular education schools in Finland filled in a questionnaire. To examine how the various characteristics of schools and school professionals predict differences in perceptions, we used multilevel regression modeling. School professionals consider almost every function of school psychologists rather important--school-level work least so. The perceptions of various professional groups, especially principals, special education teachers, school nurses, and classroom teachers, differed from each other. In addition, the amount of personal cooperation with the school psychologist was positively related with the perceptions of the importance of assessment, consultative, and school-level functions. The school-level findings revealed that the general amount of school psychological service in the school received was negatively related to the perceived importance of therapy function. The extent to which psychologists and school administration are advocates for indirect functions of school psychologist is one potential topic for further research.

Aim: To study the prognostic value of volumetric brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at term equivalent age (TEA) and neurological examinations at TEA and at 2 years of corrected age for long-term neuromotor outcome in infants born very preterm.Method: A total of 98 infants born very preterm were included. Structural and volumetric brain MRI and the Dubowitz neurologic examination were done at TEA. The Hammersmith Infant Neurological Examination (HINE) was performed at 2 years of corrected age. The Touwen examination was used for the assessment of minor neurological dysfunction (MND) at the age of 11 years.Results: Of all children (median birthweight 1083g [quartiles 820, 1300]; gestational age 28 5/7wks [26 4/7, 30 2/7]), 41 had simple MND, 11 had complex MND (cMND), and eight had cerebral palsy (CP). The negative and positive predictive value of structural brain MRI for cMND or CP was 88% and 50% respectively. Reduced volumes of total brain tissue, frontal lobes, basal ganglia and thalami, and cerebellum associated with cMND or CP. The results of the Dubowitz neurologic examination and the HINE correlated with the Touwen examination.Interpretation: Structural and volumetric MRI at TEA and structured neurological examinations predict long-term neuromotor outcome in infants born preterm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]