Dr. Gale provides behavioral consulting services, working with school districts and privately with children and families. Behaviors to be targeted often include: oppositional or defiant behavior; impulse control problems; social anxiety and fears and other behavior problems that significantly impact individuals and/or family members.
Most challenging behaviors occur for reasons that are not always immediately obvious. Typically, consultation begins with developing an understanding of the factors that maintain unacceptable or interfering behaviors. This may occur through a variety of techniques, including but not limited to:
Parent Interview: Usually done in the office, although , without the child present, (it can also be conducted by telephone). This provide an opportunity to learn about important details in the child's life and background history.
Observation at school or home: Since the goal of therapy isn't really to improve the child's functioning in the office, it's best to observe the problems where they actually occur. This can occur in a variety of ways, sometimes through individual observations and sometimes within small groups. Depending upon the kind of difficulty occurring, structured data may be helpful or simply taking process notes during the observation may be sufficient.
Psychometric and developmental questionnaires: These psychological tools are helpful in "drilling down" and providing information about the child's skills and situations that precede challenging behaviors. Giving these questionnaires to the parent(s), teacher(s), and/or other significant individuals helps paint a profile of how the child functions in different settings and with different individuals.
Development of a Behavior Plan: Based on the information developed from the assessment, a behavioral strategy is developed. Depending upon the child's age, circumstances, and other factors, they may or may not be involved in the implementation of the treatment plan. It is critical that some form of data collection be included to monitor the effectiveness of treatment.
Dr. Gale has also developed specialized assessments for children and adolescents based upon their specific treatment needs. His online assessment tool, C-BATT® Rapid Screener®, helps rapidly identify problem behaviors broken down into descriptive categories.
This on-line instrument can be completed by any adult who knows the individual being rated reasonably well. Although the tool itself is descriptive, it links to nationally normed instruments and can produce an acuity index, if needed.