Below, you'll find a list of books and articles that are recommended by various members, along with comments to highlight the value of the material.
Recommended Book/Article | Member | School Division | Comments/Review |
Feifer, S.G. (2019). The Neuropsychology of Stress & Trauma: How to Develop a Trauma Informed School. Middletown, MD: School Neuropsych Press. | Ron T. | N/A | This is a great book for developing an understanding of how trauma from adverse childhood experiences affects the brain, human functioning, and even test performance. It provides practical ideas on how to implement a trauma-informed school, including evidence-based interventions and accommodations. |
Barkley, R. (2016).
Managing ADHD in School: The Best
Evidenced-Based Methods for Teachers. PESI
Publishing. |
Ron T. | N/A | This is not the most comprehensive book on ADHD written by Russell Barkley with pages of details about research studies. Instead, it summarizes all the essential information that teachers need to know, including genetics, the underlying neurophysiology, and a load of great evidence-based strategies for teachers! I produced some well-received presentations for teachers based on this one book. |
Packer, L.E. &
Pruitt, S.K. (2010).
Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers:
Teaching Students with Tourette's, Bipolar Disorder, Executive
Dysfunction, OCD, ADHD, and More. Portland, OR:
Woodbine House. |
Sherri Smart | Hanover | This book has teacher-friendly overviews. |
Robinson, D.J. (2016).
The Mental Status Exam - Explained (3rd. Ed.). Rapid Psychler Press. |
Chris Franz | Borderland | This inexpensive book can help with prioritizing mental health observations and questions during interviewing so that you can write better narratives in reports and facilitate diagnoses. |
Using CBT in a
School: Joyce-Beaulieu, D. & Sulkowski, M. (2020). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in K-12 School Settings: A Practitioner's Workbook. Springer Publishing Company. Friedberg, R.D. & McClure, J.M. (2015). Clinical Practice of Cognitive Therapy with Children and Adolescents. Guilford Press. Stallard, P. (2019). Think Good, Feel Good: A Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Workbook for Children and Young People, Second Edition. Wiley. |
Ron T. | N/A | The CBT in K-12
School Settings book is a
must read for school psychologists who want to use CBT in school. It
gives a lot of essential information about assessment and data tracking,
theory, case conceptualization, therapy planning, CBT techniques (e.g.,
relaxation, mindfulness, behavioral regulation, habit reversal,
exposure/response prevention, cognitive restructuring, etc.), CBT
strategies for specific DSM-5 mental disorders, applied practical tips,
case studies, and many useful reproductible forms you can copy from
Springer online. For a deeper dive, Friedberg & McClure's book explains the application of CBT with children and adolescents in greater detail. It also covers detailed discussions of how to use CBT with depressed, anxious, disruptive, and autistic students. Moreover, it also has a chapter on working collaboratively with parents, and a bit on cognintive-behavioral family therapy. If you found the first edition of Think Good, Feel Good helpful, the second edition has all the latest therapeutic techniques included, including mindfulness, compassion-focused therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy. As before, you can download a plethora of reproducible forms suitable for use with children. |
Diagnosing Learning Disabilties: Flanagan, D.P. & Alfonso, V.C. (2018). Essentials of Specific Learning Disability Identification (2nd Ed.). Wiley. |
Ron T. | N/A |
In this essential book, leading experts examine multiple theoretical
orientations and various identification approaches for dyslexia,
dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and other common SLDs. |
General Academic
Interventions: Wendling, B.J. & Mather, N. (2009). Essentials of Evidence-Based Academic Interventions. John Wiley & Sons. |
Ron T. | N/A | This was one of my go-to books for coming up with great academic recommendations! I highly recommend this little book if you don't have it. In my opinion, this book is a must read for all school psychologists. It ties academic problems to associated cognitive deficiences and is loaded with practical interventions for reading, spelling, written expression, and mathematics. |
Multisensory
Structured Reading Interventions: Birsh, J.R. & Carreker, S. (2018). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills (4th Ed.). Brookes Publishing. |
Ron T. | N/A | This book discusses the use of multisensory structured teaching appropriate for all students (e.g, the Orton-Gillingham approach), including English-language learners and those with dyslexia and dyscalculia. It is a "must-read" for school psychologists who want to consult with teachers about science-based literacy instruction. The book is very comprehensive, spanning oral language development, emergent literacy skills, screening, curriculum-based measurement, phonemic awareness, decoding, morphology, executive functioning, reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, spelling instruction, written language instruction, use of technology, RTI, and much more. |
Math Interventions: Codding, R.S., Volpe, R.J., & Poncy, B.C. (2017). Effective Math Interventions: A Guide to Improving Whole-Number Knowledge. Guilford Press. Feifer, S. (2017). The Neuropsychology of Mathematics: An Introduction to the FAM. PAR Inc. |
Ron T. | N/A |
This book offers
a synthesis of empirically-supported practices that can improve K-5
mathematics instruction. From math screening, effective Tier 2 & 3
interventions, and progress monitoring, each procedure is presented in a
systematic way. The reader gets an understanding of what math skills and
content students must learn, and how, to ensure they reach mastery. The
book is filled with case examples, implementation checklists, and tables
summarizing the evidence for specific tactics.
|
Promising Books for
Dyscalculia: Bird, R. (2021). The Dyscalculia Toolkit: Supporting Learning Difficuties in Mathematics. Corwin. Emerson, J, Babtie, P., & Butterworth, B. (2014). The Dyscalculia Assessment (2nd Ed.). Bloomsbury Academic. Hannell, G. (2012). Dyscalculia: Action Plans for Successful Learning in Mathematics (2nd Ed.). Routledge. Marie-Pascale, N. & Karagiannakis, G. (2022). Effective Teaching Strategies for Dyscalculia and Learning Difficulties in Mathematics: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience. Routledge. |
Ron T. | N/A | I have only looked over the contents of these books, but they look promising for a better understanding of dyscalculia, as well as generating appropriate recommendations. |
Books helpful in
treating Selective Mutism: Kearney, C. (2010). Helping Children with Selective Mutism and Their Parents: A Guide for School-Based Professionals. Oxford University Press. McHolm, A.E., Cunningham, C.E., & Vanier, M.K. (2005). Helping Your Child with Selective Mutism: Practical Steps to Overcome A Fear of Speaking. New Harbinger Publications. |
Laura Sander | Sunrise | These are two of the several books recommended by Laura Sander at the regional school psychologists meeting on Sept. 29, 2023. They use a systematic behavior therapy method for treating the anxiety-based disorder of selective mutism. Several therapeutic components include: (a) building rapport, (b) psychoeducation, (c) teaching self-assessment of anxiety, and (d) desensitization, which includes gradually shaping verbal behavior using games, patiently waiting, and positive reinforcement, followed by gradually fading environmental stimuli to help generalize new verbal behaviors across different people and settings. In addition, reducing inadvertent parental accommodation of their child's avoidant behaviors, and adaptations (e.g., selective seating, videotaping, transitioning) are helpful. |
Books Helpful in
Understanding & Diagnosing Autism: Henderson, D., Wayland, S., & White, J. (2023). Is This Autism?: A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else. Routledge. Henderson, D., Wayland, S., & White, J. (2023). Is This Autism?: A Companion Guide for Diagnosing. Routledge. |
Ron T. | N/A | These books
werre highly recommended by several school psychologists at the June 5,
2025 regional meeting. The first book provides a detailed
description of the less-obvious presentations of autism. It also
covers many features beyond the DSM-5-TR. The companion book
desribes how clinicians can assess and diagnose autism. It
includes current assessment methods, such as interviewing, rating
scales, self-report measures, social cognition tests, and behavioral
observations. It also provvides guidance regarding cultural
considerations, common mistakes, and how to communicate with and support
clients through the diagnostic process. |