Assessment as Consultation: Working with Parents and Teachers.

The author presents a perspective on school psychological services, beginning with the assessment process, that focuses on parent and teacher consultation. The paper outlines a focal shift from the individual child to the parental and systemic life in which the child is embedded. The role of the school psychologist is conceived as, primarily, consultative and collaborative in nature. Collaborating with parents and teachers in the assessment process involves mutual exploration and information gathering and reflects a paradigmatic shift from individual analysis to the analysis of dyadic and systemic parent-child and family-school relationships. Understanding parents' and teachers' perspectives and needs, providing a supportive, collaborative environment, and serving as a conduit between the family and the school is seen as vital to the role of the school psychologist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]