The death of a loved one is a significant stressor for children. Most children are exposed to grief at an early age. Without necessary support and guidance, children are much more susceptible to negative emotional, cognitive, and developmental effects. Expressive therapies such as bibliotherapy are supposed to provide a safe and healthy outlet for children's grief. However, school psychologists have limited pre-service training and readily available resources to effectively address children's death-related grief. This study included a survey of school psychologists from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Crisis Management Group. Of the 431 potential members, 22% (N=95) responded to an online survey. Of these surveys, 89 were considered complete and representative of school psychologists experienced in working with grieving elementary school-aged children. Participants responded to questions regarding availability of, use of, and need for printed materials to support children's grief. Participants were also asked to share their ideas, activities, and children's picture books which supported children's grief. Based on survey responses, practical guidelines and a resource list of activities and grief-related materials were summarized to assist school psychologists in better supporting young children's adaptive coping skills following the death of a loved one.

This study extracted descriptive information and analyzed content in 23 children's books related to military deployment using a coding instrument entitled, “Military Bibliotherapy Coding Instrument for Children's Books,” developed for this study. Additionally, the content from the books was compared to themes found in current research literature. The books were not as racially diverse as the military population. Books for black children are underrepresented with only 8% of books having black characters compared to the 16.9% black population in active duty military service. The most prevalent response to the deployment of a loved one described is sadness with 65% of the books describing this response. Finding ways to keep the main character and the deployed person connected is the most prevalent coping strategy described in the books (82%). A surprising find is that pride in the deployed person's military service is described as a coping strategy in some of the books although it was not found in the research literature. All phases of deployment were described with the exception of reintegration. No books addressed this important phase of deployment. Information from this analysis will assist parents, educators and mental health professionals in selecting books for bibliotherapy use that align with the unique circumstances and characteristics of military children. Information presented will also inform and encourage publishers to seek out and publish books to more adequately meet the demographics and meet the unique experiences faced by military children.

Teachers are faced with the dual task of teaching academic skills and managing students’ problematic behaviors. Randomly selected kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers (N=295 of 1,144; 26% return rate) in rural, urban, and suburban Utah were asked to identify students’ five most problematic behaviors, as well as students’ five most desired social skills which supported social-emotional wellbeing and academic achievement. Teachers’ responses were summarized and information will be used to enhance universal Tier 1 social skills interventions, part of school-wide positive behavior support in Utah’s elementary schools. The top five problematic behaviors identified by participating teachers included (a) defiant and refuses to comply with teacher's requests; (b) aggressive (hits, kicks, shoves); (c) says or does things to hurt others' feelings; (d) inattentive, daydreaming, distracted; and (e) disrespectful to adults. The top five desired social skills included (a) conflict management/resolution; (b) following rules and instructions; (c) self-management: good use of free time, seatwork, assigned tasks; (d) anger management; and (e) coping with challenging situations. These identified behaviors and social skills will guide efforts of Utah’s Tier 1 Positive Behavioral Support in selecting children’s literature and creating classroom lesson plans which specifically address problematic behaviors and focus on desired social skills.

The purpose of this study was to develop a modified form of bibliotherapy (biblioplay) and to assess its usefulness in reducing separation anxiety associated with the transition to preschool. Six biblioplay sessions were conducted with 28 children using props for six consecutive days. Teachers rated each child on Scale 2 of the Hall (1967) Inventory of Separation Anxiety. Findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the group that received the biblioplay sessions and the group that did not. The indication that biblioplay conducted after the first days of preschool does not produce significant results in reducing separation anxiety suggests that other approaches to working with these children need to be formulated. / Master of Science

Divorce is a common event in the United States; an estimated 50% of marriages end in divorce. With so many divorces each year, a substantial number of children are impacted. Divorce can have negative effects socially, behaviorally, emotionally, and academically, in both the short term and the long term. Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic tool centered on the use of books and stories to assist in the understanding and expression of an event. Bibliotherapy has been shown to be effective for children who have experienced similar traumatic events such as loss. Research suggests that bibliotherapy could be a flexible, cost efficient, time efficient, and therapeutically effective intervention for children experiencing divorce. This research project attempted to further understand and identify the perspectives of school psychologists on the selection and use of bibliotherapy for children experiencing divorce in their families. Participants (n=11) discussed their perceptions of 16 preselected children’s divorce books. They also discussed their perceptions on important selection criteria to consider when selecting a book to use with children of divorce. Overarching themes indicated that participants proposed that an effective book individualizes treatment; portrays realistic experiences; includes topics that are practical, comprehensive and multi-dimensional; provides an engaging and interactive story; and addresses and identifies emotions. Future research is recommended to explore the effectiveness of using carefully selected stories in supporting elementary-aged children experiencing parental divorce.

While schools are focused on academic success, many lack the resources and instruction needed to help students grow in their social emotional learning. However, research has shown that social emotional learning not only helps students build character but also helps them achieve academic goals. Furthermore, studies have shown that bibliotherapy helps children learn social skills and how to apply them into their own lives. The goal of this study was to determine if Book in a Bag, a social skills bibliotherapy program, implemented over the course of an entire school year was perceived by teachers as an acceptable method to help students learn social emotional skills. The study used a single case study design in an elementary school with grades 1-6. The sample consisted of 19 teachers from grades 1-6. This study was completed using existing data from an elementary school that implemented Book in a Bag. The Book in a Bag lessons were taught by the teachers, volunteers, or substitutes in every class. Surveys and focus groups were conducted to assess the social validity and perceptions of the program amongst the teachers regarding whether or not it was an acceptable strategy to teach students social skills. As part of this mixed methods design, an analysis of the means and standard deviations was performed on the survey data as well a one-way ANOVA to assess any differences across grade levels. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was performed on the focus group data to interpret the teachers' responses. Results suggested that teachers found Book in a Bag an acceptable way to teach social skills and they found the social skills important for their students' social emotional learning. There was no significant difference across grade levels. In the focus group data, teachers reported that the lessons were easy to implement and helped their students gain a greater sense of awareness of the social skill steps. However, teachers in every grade level reported that some of the books did not connect very well to the social skill it was intended to teach and oftentimes there were not enough books for each of the classes. Moreover, this study suggests that bibliotherapy may be an effective and easy way to promote social emotional learning in the classroom. Future implementation of this program should aim to make sure the books match with the social skill and that there are enough materials to implement the program on a school-wide level. Future studies of this program should look at how Book in Bag affects changes in student behavior across the school year by performing observational studies, particularly on playgrounds and during free time to see if students are implementing the social skill steps taught in the lessons.

This research examined the use of award-winning children’s literature for social and emotional learning, focusing on its use for children in third through sixth grades. The world is ever-changing, and, as a result, the need for children to learn necessary social and emotional skills continues to increase. These skills include, but are not limited to, perseverance, friendship, grit, caring, and the like. It has been found that teaching social and emotional skills through bibliotherapy is an engaging and successful method that can be used by schools and teachers. Teachers or other educational stakeholders can use this document to begin to understand the need for social and emotional learning and the benefits of bibliotherapy. Additionally, this document can be used as a reference to guide literature selection based on social and emotional traits and themes. At the time of the research, there were few other guides and references as such.

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