In Ireland, the provision of behavior support services has developed following the introduction of Health Information and Quality Authority (2013) standards and the regulation of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) under the Health Act (2007). The purpose of this study was to explore what factors facilitate and act as barriers to implementation of…

Background and Context: School principals and school guidance counsellors can be very influential in deciding what subjects are offered on the curriculum, how they are promoted and who they are targeted to. For that reason, exploring their views of Computer Science (CS) as a subject can help unearth potential barriers that may hinder the wider…

The coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions on the education system presented distinctive difficulties to educational psychologists in conducting their assessment practice. This study sought to gather the perceptions of a sample of educational psychologists from across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, examining changes…

Background: The present study investigated psychologists' views of the experience of death and bereavement among children with intellectual disabilities. Materials and Methods: Twelve psychologists with experience of working with children with intellectual disabilities (Educational = 2, Clinical = 8, and Behavioural analysts = 2; average years of…

The experience of practising psychotherapy as a clinical psychologist was explored through a small number of in-depth interviews. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, three main themes were identified: "Feeling there's something missing", "Being able to get in there emotionally" and "Needing somewhere to go for…

Recent years have seen a revived interest in therapeutic educational psychology practice. The aim of this research is to identify the range of therapeutic approaches being delivered by Educational Psychologists (EPs) in an Irish context and to elicit the views of practitioners on the facilitators and barriers to therapeutic provision. Twelve…

The Irish Education Act (Government of Ireland 1998) stipulates that each young person in secondary school in Ireland is entitled to access "appropriate" guidance. It has been argued that this very right has been eroded since Budget 2012, where resource re-allocations in guidance counselling are obstructing the requirement for schools to…

Research and recent policy developments in Eire highlight that there is a growing number of children in Irish schools presenting with special educational needs, leading to an increased need for Educational Psychology services. This research utilised case studies of children who were presenting to teachers with academic, social, emotional or…

Although evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been identified in recent systematic literature reviews, the extent to which the practice of educational psychologists (EPs) in the UK and Ireland is informed by these is unknown. This study presents the results of a questionnaire that surveyed 146 EP…

Ireland has a policy of inclusive education to enable children with special educational needs to access education alongside their peers. The introduction of early assessment procedures to ensure that children receive support and resources on entering formal education has been an important strategy for delivery of this policy. This paper uses data…

Reflexivity is a professional requirement of the Adult Guidance Counsellor, with reflexive practice paramount to our work. From 2008 to 2010 I trained as an Adult Guidance Counsellor while working with an unemployed adult client group. During this time, I also journeyed through my first pregnancy. Towards the end of my training, I experienced a…

This chapter examines a specific aspect of digital media use, namely the viewing of violent content amongst a male adolescent cohort aged 15-17 years. It is a qualitative study that examines the online practices of fourteen male adolescents, with particular emphasis placed on their understanding of violence. The participants offer the researcher…

The current study investigated clinicians' perspectives on the effectiveness of interventions designed to support the development of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Researchers developed a semi-structured interview which was administered to 11 clinicians involved in the assessment and treatment of ASDs (5 = clinical…

The provision of guidance in adult and continuing education in Ireland was examined. First, policy in Ireland regarding guidance for adults in education is discussed in the context of the proposals adopted by the European Union (EU) Commission and EU Member States pursuant to the EU Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996. Recent literature on career…