Systematic Behavior Screening: a Necessary Practice, Article Review Example

Systematic Behavior Screening of elementary and secondary school students is essential so that none “fall through the cracks.”   This process should begin as soon as children enter the school system.  In so doing, a baseline of behaviors can be established and, importantly, behavior problems can be dealt with before they escalate out of control.

My reflection of the article is that it is a well-written and easy-to-understand timely informative article about “a necessary practice”(Bruhn)  in our schools.  Bruhn says that “several reliable and valid screening tools exist, including the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS)…the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)…the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD).”  The first two tests are free, while the SSBD, which “is validated for elementary age students, costs $120 per kit, and may be purchased online.  The screener in the kit is reproducible, so it is essentially a one-time cost for schools” (ibid.).  The significance of the article is that it points out that the traditional office discipline referrals (ODRs) constitute a wait-to-fail situation and only work with externalizing behaviors,  whereas screeners such as the SSBD “also identifies students with internalizing behaviors.  The Early Screening Project is a similar instrument designed for children ages 3-5” (NHCEIBS).  According to Lane et al (2009), “the SSBD is considered the gold standard for systematic EBD screening.”  Caldarella et al (July 1, 2008) suggests further research on the SSBD.

The educational system has good evaluator tools at its disposal.  However, it must be stressed that  assessment without intervention is somewhat of an exercise in futility.

References

Bruhn, A.L. , University of Iowa.  “Systematic behavior screening:  A necessary practice.”  Article in CEDS Communique.40.2.Summer 2012.

Caldarella, Young, P., Ellis, L., Richardson, M. J., Benjamin, J., &  Young, K.R., (July 01, 2008).  Validation of the systematic screening for behavior disorders in middle and junior high school. Retrieved on November 25, 2012, from http://www.redorbit,co/news/education/1457820/.

Lane, K. L., Little, M. A., Casey, A. M., Lambert, W., Wehby, J., Weisenbach, J. L., &

Phillips, A.  A comparison of systematic screening tools for emotional and behavioral disorders. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, v17 n2 p93 – 105 2009.  Retrieved on November 25, 2012, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERIC.Web/Portal/search/data.

NHCEBIS.  Systematic screening for behavioral disorders.  Retrieved on November 25, 2012, from http://www.nhcebis.serese.net/universal_ssbd.