The Internet provides access to electronic mail (e-mail), chat rooms, visually represented social interactions, voice and video connections, games, and general Word Wide Web (www or web) surfing. For children and adolescents the Internet has three main uses: information-gathering, entertainment, and interpersonal communication. Many adults fear that youth Internet use will result in negative consequences. Other individuals promote the use of the Internet as supporting positive growth in children and adolescents. This article presents an overview of some of the main areas of concern regarding Internet use as well as its possible benefits. It is hoped that this information will assist school counsellors and psychologists support positive youth Internet use while avoiding negative aspects of Internet involvement.

The purpose of this study was to document the school experience of adolescents (n = 20) with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and to identify ways in which they could be better assisted to cope with school. Only half the schools assisted students via organisational changes or individual programs. Parents and school liaison people were seen to be the most helpful and Principals and School Counsellors the least helpful. Impaired memory and concentration negatively affected school experience to a large degree. The results indicated five major needs for schools to address: (1) emotional support and validation, (2) development of individual educational programs to reduce work pressure, (3) administrative flexibility, (4) active maintenance of social involvement with peer group and extracurricular activities, and (5) practical help. These can be facilitated by the appointment of a ‘school liaison person’ to individually assist a student with CFS.

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and the Stanford-Binet — Fifth Edition (SB5) are two of the most commonly used intelligence tests for children and adolescents. No comparative studies of the WISC-IV and SB5 have yet been published. In the current study the WISC-IV and SB5 were administered in counterbalanced order to 30 typically developing 12- to 14-year-old adolescents. There was a significant difference between Full Scale IQs on the two measures, with scores being higher on the WISC-IV. A significant difference was also found between Verbal IQs and there were large score differences for some participants. The article concludes that the WISC-IV and SB5 cannot be presumed to be interchangeable measures of intelligence.

This article describes a novel format for enhancing the professional skills of school counsellors who are faced with increasing demands to adopt a consultancy model in order to manage their work responsibilities. The system, known as SHARK-Net, utilises the Internet in a consultancy model which links school counsellors with expert support. The purpose of this article is to describe the communication features of the system and how information is managed, and to explain its benefits to the development of consultancy skills among school counsellors.

Today’s children are born into a climate crisis and are increasingly exposed to its effects. Eco-anxiety is an emotional response to climate crises. Numerous recent studies have shown that the prevalence of eco-anxiety is increasing among children. School counsellors are uniquely positioned to lead educators, parents, and students on how eco-anxiety can be addressed within schools. However, this phenomenon has not yet received attention in the school counselling literature. This conceptual article aims to convey the importance of school counsellors’ knowledge and consciousness of the relationship between ecological crises and mental health and to discuss their roles in schools in this context.

Welcome to this edition of the Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling. As you will noticed we have had another change for the journal — we have a new publisher. We are very fortunate that the journal will now be published by the prestigious Cambridge University Press. We hope to have a long and productive relationship with them. I trust you find this issue interesting and informative for your practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in demand for mental health services for young people. This demand comes on top of a preexisting surge in mental health presentations for our youth, and it places extraordinary demand on support services and the professionals who deliver them. Concurrently, it is recognised that engaging and working with young people and their mental health has its own unique challenges, and that many young people find direct ‘talk-based’ therapies confronting. This article examines the use of a model of group work practice combining the benefits of rhythmic music with reflective discussions as a response to the dual challenges of workplace burnout and client engagement. It reflects on the important role music has to play in young lives and how this can be extended into therapy in a fun and uplifting manner. It draws attention to the long history of rhythmic music within traditional healing practices and the emerging scientific evidence supporting this approach.

This article reports on the findings of an action research enquiry examining the efficacy of group therapy as a means of facilitating cognitive–behavioural instruction for students who exhibit disruptive behaviours. A curriculum comprising the key tenets of cognitive–behaviour modification was developed and taught over a 9-week period to a group of 12 Year 7 adolescent students selected from a primary school in the Brisbane metropolitan district, Queensland, Australia. Six of the participants for the investigation were identified as ‘at-risk’ of engaging in disruptive behaviours based on extensive observations from members of the school administration team. The remaining students served as role models of prosocial behaviours throughout the intervention. Each session incorporated group discussions and physical challenges that were formulated to facilitate investigation of key concepts of cognitive– behavioural therapy. The findings that emerged from the investigation provide support for the use of group therapy for this form of intervention.

The concept of child and adolescent social competence is complex and multidimensional. Dodge (1985) has attempted to summarise various aspects of the concept into a parsimonious theoretical model. It is suggested that comprehensive assessment of social competence includes measures tapping into a range of dimensions illustrated by the model. A growing body of empirical data links children's low levels of social competence to various forms of maladjustment in adolescence and adulthood. Clinical and educational interventions directed at improving child and adolescent social competence offer a valuable direction for a preventative approach that should be considered and empirically evaluated. Available social skills interventions emerge from three major theoretical foundations: Behavioural, Cognitive Problem Solving, and Structuralist. Populations targeted for intervention also vary from children or adolescents with identified problems in clinical settings, to whole school educational approaches. Empirical comparison of alternative training approaches has demonstrated that social skills training is effective, and a combination of behavioural and cognitive components is important. Issues regarding child characteristics, outcome measures and consideration of wider systems are also discussed.

In this paper it is argued that the normative biological, social and emotional events and processes of sexual maturation in adolescence can be interpreted as stressors. The nature of these stressors varies in terms of the amount of change required to adjust to the event or process, its unexpectedness, suddenness, negativity and uncontrollableness. Young people's capacity to cope with their sexual development, and the strategies they employ, will depend on the perceived nature of the stressor, the personal characteristics and inner resources of the adolescent, and the level of accessible social support. Personal characteristics discussed include optimism and a positive outlook, hardiness, communication and social skills, restraint/ conscientiousness and sense of control. Environmental supports discussed include family, peers, school, and organised religion.

Whilst there are many critical elements in the teaching of micro-counselling skills, feedback is an essential component of an effective training program. This paper describes supervision linked to a program of instruction. More particularly it examines the relative merit and contribution of utilising both instructor rating and self-rating as a means of providing educative feedback during the process of supervision in a brief counselling training program. Instructor rating and self-rating measures were taken on two occasions, first at the commencement of a six-week training program and secondly at the completion of the course. It was found that instructor rating was consistently lower than self-rating, but both reflected an improvement in counselling skills acquisition. Students indicated an ability to be self-critical after a period of counselling training to the extent that instructor rating matched more closely self-rating, after the second interview.

The vision was to have a group of up to eight mildly – moderately intellectually handicapped children integrated into a Year 1/2 class at Monkland State School. The total class numbers were to be the same as for a regular class (for infants – 25) with two teachers, one of whom is trained in special education. The integrated group would progress through the school with their age peers. The needs of the children would be considered in the School Development Plan. The special needs group would be closely linked to the special school campus so its specific facilities could be utilised. Some students enrolled at special school would also have access to the Monkland group for some integration/link activities. In two years time a similar class in another school will be opened.

The counselling effectiveness of guidance officers (GOs) was examined in a study involving 21 State secondary schools in Queensland. Students from Year 8 to Year 12 from each school were asked to rate the level of satisfaction with a counselling session. This was measured by the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) developed by Larsen, Attkisson, Hargreaves and Nguyen (1979). Based on Strong's (1968) Social Influence model, counselling was assumed to be an interpersonal influence process. Therefore these students also rated their perceptions of a GO's counselling attributes on the Counselor Rating Form – Short Version (CRF-S; Corrigan & Schmidt, 1983). Results indicated that ratings on the 12 CRF-S items as a total as well as a number of individual items significantly predicted CSQ scores. Student ratings on both questionnaires were high and possible explanations are considered. Also, several GO and student variables (e.g. sex of student, willingness, year level) were found to significantly predict satisfaction. Additionally, a number of these GO and student variables (e.g. GO and sex of student, willingness, the number of counselling sessions) were also found to differentially affect students' perceptions of GOs' counselling attributes.

This article examines recent research and developments relating to the role of phonemic awareness and phonics in early literacy education and the relevance of these findings for school counsellors and teachers. It defines and reviews the role of phonemic awareness and phonics in theoretical models of reading processes, including whole-language, code-based and balanced literacy programs, to determine the varying degrees of significance attributed to these components in early reading instruction. It critically reviews recent national and international government research, reports and recommendations to examine how phonemic awareness and phonics are conceptualised and translated into educational policy. In doing so, the article highlights the need for establishing a comprehensive and explicit theoretical and practical framework for the teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics, and a thorough analysis of the range of traditional and contemporary methods of teaching phonemic awareness and phonics in the classroom. The importance of school counsellors having a greater understanding of research about contemporary best practices in literacy education, and a key role, in partnership with teachers, in ensuring such knowledge is put into practice, is emphasised.

During consecutive terms as President of the Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association, the first author routinely made public addresses where the survival and promotion of the Counselling profession was explored. Following such speeches, Guidance Counsellors would typically tell stories about the poor regard with which their role was held within their system and asked what they could do to increase their identity, profile and status. The second author, in eighteen years as a Guidance Officer in a different state, also came to learn that embedded within such interactions and questions were anxieties about job security and concerns about the public perception of the relative professional value of our role. It would be possible to write a paper that reflected that gloom, but we decided it would be timely and more useful to consider what could be done to increase the likelihood of professional survival.

In addition to the climate existing in the world of Guidance, we are aware of the advent of Nurse Counsellors, Behaviour Teachers, Pastoral Carers, Home-School Liaison Officers, School-based Police, Chaplains and Welfare Workers within the education context. It has been the placement of these additional personnel within schools which has added to the unease of Guidance Counsellors, with what many believe is usurping some of the their role.

Australian schools are experiencing an increase in enrolments for students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Many of these students, who are frequently from migrant, refugee or asylum-seeker backgrounds, progress academically, but a small number experience learning challenges. In these circumstances, practitioners (school psychologists and guidance counsellors) assess the students to determine underlying factors contributing to limited academic progress, and ways in which the student’s learning can be supported and enhanced. However, formal assessment can be challenging due to language and cultural barriers. Considering the gaps in the research and training, the present article proposes an assessment framework and highlights strategies that can be adopted by practitioners at schools to enrich their decision-making and assessment process. Two case studies are used to highlight factors that can impact students’ academic difficulties. Further interview protocols and assessment measures that can be used to assist these students and their families are discussed. Ways in which school authorities can guide and support these students in the classroom and in the school are examined.

Welcome to the first issue of our journal under the new title Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools. This issue is a special one on psycho-educational assessment. We have a range of interesting and stimulating articles on this topic, reflecting the important and substantial role that assessment plays in the work of many school psychologists and counsellors. Psycho-educational assessment includes areas such as behavioural, social-emotional and vocational assessment, although most referrals for assessment in schools are related to learning difficulties. The issue has a truly international flavour, with authors from Australia, Greece, China, Ireland, Bangladesh, Peru, Iran and the United States.

The case is presented of an 8-year-old boy who was referred for psycho-educational assessment because of difficulties with writing. The article provides an example of the way in which a case unfolds as further assessment data become available, and describes a number of challenging aspects of the assessment process. In this case, dilemmas arose when test results were inconsistent at different time points, and when the results were inconsistent with clinical observations. The case report illustrates the ways in which practitioners can collaborate to make sense of such discrepancies, with each contributing a slightly different perspective or set of skills that, in combination, assist to better understand a child's difficulties.