School refusal affects up to 5% of children and is a complex and stressful issue for the child, their family and school. The more time a child is away from school, the more difficult it is for the child to resume normal school life. If school refusal becomes an ongoing issue it can negatively impact the child’s social and educational development. Psychologist Joanne Garfi spends most of her working life assisting parents, teachers, school counsellors, caseworkers, and community policing officers on how best to deal with school refusal. Now her experiences and expertise are available in this easy-to-read practical book. Overcoming School Refusal helps readers understand this complex issue by explaining exactly what school refusal is and provides them with a range of strategies they can use to assist children in returning to school. Areas covered include: • types of school refusers • why children refuse to go to school • symptoms • short term and long term consequences • accurate assessment • treatment options • what parents can do • what schools can do • dealing with anxious high achievers • how to help children on the autism spectrum with school refusal

Annotation Kearney, a clinical child psychologist at the U. of Nevada, Las Vegas, has written his book mainly with the school psychologist in mind. The problem of school refusal is put into a context in initial chapters which give an overview of the historical literature on school refusal behavior and describe the characteristics of these youth, while also critiquing the classification strategies employed. After introducing a functional model, Kearney summarizes treatment strategies and discusses methods for prevention as well as the reality of extreme cases. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This program is a unique prescriptive model for the treatment of school refusal behavior of children ages 5 to 17. Using a two-component program, this model divides the school refusal behavior into four basic groups based on the reasons why children refuse school: avoidance of school situations that provoke general negative affectivity; escape from aversive social/evaluative situations; attention; and positive tangible reinforcement. Use it with children who are completely absent from school, who attend but then leave school during the day, who go to school following intense morning behavioral problems, or who display unusual distress during school days leading to pleas to parents or others for future non-attendance.

Designed for guidance counselors, teachers, principals and deans, school psychologists, school-based social workers, and other school professionals, Helping School-Refusing Children and Their Parents outlines various strategies for helping children get back to school with less distress, all of which can be easily implemented in schools. This fully-updated second edition provides recommendations for a multi-tiered approach to school absenteeism that concentrates on prevention (Tier 1), early intervention for emerging cases (Tier 2), and more extensive intervention and systemic strategies for severe cases (Tier 3), with each tier based on empirically supported strategies grounded in scientific research.

School refusal is a crippling condition in which children experience extreme anxiety or panic attacks when faced with everyday school life. This book aims to explore, raise awareness of the problem and provide plans and strategies for education, health and social care professionals for identifying and addressing this problem

School refusal affects up to 5% of children and is a complex and stressful issue for the child, their family and school. The more time a child is away from school, the more difficult it is for the child to resume normal school life. If school refusal becomes an ongoing issue it can negatively impact the child’s social and educational development. Psychologist Joanne Garfi spends most of her working life assisting parents, teachers, school counsellors, caseworkers, and community policing officers on how best to deal with school refusal. Now her experiences and expertise are available in this easy-to-read practical book. Overcoming School Refusal helps readers understand this complex issue by explaining exactly what school refusal is and provides them with a range of strategies they can use to assist children in returning to school. Areas covered include: • types of school refusers • why children refuse to go to school • symptoms • short term and long term consequences • accurate assessment • treatment options • what parents can do • what schools can do • dealing with anxious high achievers • how to help children on the autism spectrum with school refusal

Helping Children with Selective Mutism and Their Parents: A Guide for School-based Professionals provides information that can help readers to better understand and combat selective mutism, offering evidence-based strategies for enhancing a child's verbal participation at school and in other types of social and academic activities.