Training Experiences and Community Outreach

Training Experiences and Community Outreach

Intro

During their training in the School Psychology Program at Mississippi State University, graduate students are provided with a wealth of applied experience across a variety of settings. These experiences include opportunities in our own School Psychology Services Center, local school districts, pre-school settings, the Mississippi Department of Education, and hospital settings. All of these experiences are provided under the direct supervision of the faculty in the School Psychology Program. More information can be found below.

School Psychology Services Center

Mission and Philosophy

The science and practice of school psychology are carefully integrated into our graduate programs at the masters, educational specialist, and doctoral levels. The MSU School Psychology Services Center seeks to provide excellence in training to the graduate students in the program and also to provide needed psychological services to the community. This interface allows for state-of-the-art interventions, cutting-edge research, and focused training opportunities that are mutually beneficial to both the program faculty and students, and the regional community. While the program is designed to train entry-level school psychology practitioners, the program stresses the importance of contributing to the field by engaging in scientific behaviors. Thus, the program adheres to the Scientist-Practitioner model where faculty and students are expected to be

  1. consumers of empirically-based practice,
  2. evaluators of their own empirically-based practice, and
  3. producers of research that contributes to the field of school psychology.

In addition to adhering to the Scientist-Practitioner model detailed at the Boulder Conference in 1949, the faculty also place an emphasis on training school psychologists who practice from a behavioral and problem-solving paradigm providing empirically-based school psychological services to a diverse population of individuals including children, families, school personnel, and other related professionals.

Overview of Services

Collectively the School Psychology Services Center provides a wide range of psychological services to meet the needs of children and their families across three clinics: 1) School Psychology Assessment Clinic, 2) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic, and 3) Summer Academic and Behavior Clinic. Services include, but are not limited to, cognitive and achievement assessment, social/emotional assessment, behavioral assessment, Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy, academic interventions, etc. Additionally, these services are provided to children and adolescents who are developmentally between birth and 22 years of age, which includes children with and without developmental disabilities. Services are primarily provided by graduate level School Psychology students who are under the direct supervision of School Psychology faculty. Clients are accepted on a referral basis, either directly from caregivers or schools.

General Information

The School Psychology Services Center provides training opportunities for our graduate students while providing comprehensive behavioral healthcare services to children, adolescents, young adults, their families, and schools. Assessment, intervention, and consultation services are provided to families and schools at the School Psychology Services Center in the Box Building and 1219 Blackjack on the MSU campus. Evaluations typically include clinic-based and/or school-based functional assessments, systematic observations, home and school behavior rating scales, semi-structured interviews, curriculum-based assessments, and standardized tests. Academic and/or behavioral interventions will be individually designed and implemented and systematically evaluated for treatment effectiveness.

Staff

Drs. Kayla Bates-Brantley, Dan Gadke, Hailey Ripple, Kasee Stratton-Gadke, MacKenzie Sidwell and Mark Wildmon are the supervising faculty in the School Psychology Services Center. MSU School Psychology graduate students provide services under the supervision of the faculty.


School Psychology Services Center Clinics

School Psychology Assessment Clinic

The School Psychology Assessment Clinic (SPAC) provides comprehensive psychological evaluation services based on the referral needs of a given client. This may or may not included cognitive testing, achievement testing, curriculum based assessment, and behavioral/social and emotional assessment. Following the evaluation, a formal report is provided to the parent/legal guardian. Although the clinic staff cannot make eligibility determinations for special education services, the report provided at the completion of the evaluation can be used as the parent/legal guardian finds necessary.

Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic

The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic (ADDC) provides comprehensive behavioral and academic services rooted in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) to children, adolescents, and emerging adults with a variety of disabilities and their families. In addition to our individual and group based interventions, the ADDC also provides comprehensive psychological and psycho-educational assessment services. All services are provided on a sliding scale fee based on family income. All direct services are provided by graduate students earning their educational specialist or doctoral degrees in the School Psychology program at Mississippi State University while under the direct supervision of a faculty member.

Visit the ADDC website

Summer Academic and Behavior Clinic

Academic services are provided during the school year for children with difficulties in the areas of reading, math, and writing. During the summer months, the School Psychology Services Center runs Summer Academic and Behavior Clinic (SABC). Since 2002, the SABC is held annually during the month of July for students who need assistance with reading, math, and/or social skills. Children receive at least 40 minutes of individualized instruction across each of the academic areas during the morning sessions that last from approximately 8 am to noon, daily with ample opportunity to interact with adults and peers during the day. The four-five week clinic also provides children with two snack breaks and supervised outdoor activity to complete the day. By maintaining high staff to student ratios, intensive behavior-based interventions are effective in addressing concerns. Additional identified needs may also be addressed.

Supplemental Services Clinic

The supplemental services clinic will focus on all other areas of school psychology services that may not fall directly under the helm of the more defined clinics. Services may include therapy services (e.g., targeting internalizing concerns) for neurotypical children, behavioral services for children with ADHD, parent and/or teacher consultation, parent education and training, community trainings, etc. Essentially, any potential service the faculty in collaboration with parents deem necessary and appropriate in terms of training needs can be targeted. Supervision of cases within this clinic will be determined on a case-by-case basis by the faculty and clinic staff.


Additional Service and Training Settings

School-based Services Program and Practica Settings

As part of their training, the graduate students work wiht local educational agencies (i.e., school districts and pre-schools) to assist teachers, administrators, and parents who have children experiencing academic, behavioral, social and emotional problems. Graduate students serve in a variety of roles (i.e., academic, assessment, behavior, and/or crisis specialists) within these settings. Our students provide services within the following counties in Mississippi: Attala, Carroll, Choctaw, Clay, Holmes, Lowndes, Monroe, Montgomery, Oktibbeha, Webster, and Winston.

Externship Hospital Settings

Our students have completed practica and externships as locations such as the Stallings Center in Tuscaloosa, Munroe-Meyer Rehabilitation and Genetics Institute in Omaha, NE; and the New England Center for Autism.

Internship Training Sites

All School Psychology students must complete an approved internship to culminate their training. Students have completed internships at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Marcus Institute, the May Institute, the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and school districts around the country, including Phoenix, AZ; Biloxi, DeSoto County, Ocean Springs, Starkville, and Tishomingo County, MS; Denver, CO; Dallas, Lweisville, Houston, and Fort Worth, TX


Contact Information

For more information regarding services at with the School Psychology Services Center, please contact one of our clinic coordinators by email at schoolpsychservices@colled.msstate.edu or by phone at 662.325.2568.