The Center for Children and Families at Florida International University announces Lead Counselor positions for 2024. Eligible children for STP-PreK are recruited from preschool programs in or around Miami-Dade County and are receiving, or eligible to receive, services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for moderate-to-severe learning and/or behavioral needs. Services are provided at Paul Bell Middle School. The program provides treatment tailored to children's individual behavioral and learning difficulties.
The dates of employment for the Lead Counselor position are Monday, June 3, 2024 through Friday, August, 2, 2024. Lead Counselor hours of employment are 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday. In addition, Lead Counselors will participate in a parent training group that meets one or two evenings weekly until 8:00 PM.
Lead Counselors will receive a salary of $7,000.00 for the summer. In addition, practicum credits for current students can often be arranged on an individual basis through the student's own program.
Children and counselors are assigned to groups that remain constant for the duration of the program. Each group consists of four or five counselors and 10 to 15 children of similar age. Children participate in a variety of classroom-based and recreational activities. Staff members implement an extensive behavior modification treatment program during all program activities. The behavior modification program includes feedback and associated consequences for positive and negative behaviors, daily and weekly rewards for appropriate behavior, social praise and attention, appropriate commands, and age-appropriate removal from positive reinforcement.
In addition to participating in daily activities and implementing the treatment program, Lead Counselors have primary responsibility for supervising the counselors in their groups with their assigned duties. This includes reviewing plans for activities such as sports skill drills for appropriateness, reviewing daily recording and tracking forms for accuracy, and observing group counselors during daily activities to ensure that all group members are implementing the treatment components with fidelity. Lead Counselors will also review daily treatment records to determine individual areas of impairment and to determine target behaviors and any need for individualized programming for children or adolescents who do not respond to the standard treatment components. Finally, Lead Counselors will be responsible for daily communication with parents. Lead Counselors will work under the supervision of Ph.D. level clinicians and experienced STP-PreK staff members and will receive regular feedback about their performance.
Lead Counselors in the STP-PreK supervise and deliver the treatment components within both classroom and recreational contexts. Counselors will assist in the following each day: (1) leading an academic center (i.e., English/Language Arts, Math, Science, Writing); (2) leading a sport (i.e., soccer, kickball, teeball); (3) delivery of treatment components during large group instruction periods; (4) assisting
in the delivery of an evidence-based reading intervention; and (5) tracking the daily behavioral progress for assigned cases. Sports experience is not a requirement for the STP-PreK program.
Prior to the start of employment, Lead Counselors will be required to read the applicable treatment program manual and to be extensively familiar with behavior modification program and rules and procedures for daily activities, including the rules and fundamentals for the sports played in the program and other daily activities. Lead Counselors will be required to memorize, verbatim, information such the operational definitions for the behavior modification system categories, activity rules, rules for classifying behaviors, and other related information. Lead Counselors will need to spend a significant amount of time preparing prior to the start of employment.
During the first two weeks of employment, Lead Counselors will participate in a variety of training activities. Training will consist of lectures, slide and video presentations, testing, and daily active role- plays during which staff members will act as counselors and children during activities such as games, drills, discussions, and time out. Lead Counselors will participate in all training activities with the Counselors assigned to their groups and will be expected to take a leadership role in supervising and training Counselors in their groups.
During the last week of employment, Lead Counselors will complete rating scales regarding progress children made in the program and children’s response to treatment. Lead Counselors will also write treatment summaries for each child in their groups. In addition, Lead Counselors will complete staff evaluations for the Counselors they supervise during the summer.
The Center for Children and Families was founded by William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D., who is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Florida International University. Paulo Graziano, Ph.D., and Katie Hart, Ph.D., are the Program Directors for the STP-PreK and FIU Summer Academy. The Summer Treatment Program, from which the STP-PreK was adapted, has been conducted since 1980 and was named as a Model Program for Service Delivery for Child and Family Mental Health by the Section on Clinical Child Psychology and Division of Child, Youth, and Family Services of the American Psychological Association. The STP has also been used in clinical trials conducted under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental Health and SAMHSA, and has been named a program of the year by CHADD, the national parent advocacy group for children with ADHD.
Lead Counselors who have worked in the Summer Treatment Program have found it a valuable opportunity to gain intensive experience and training in working with children and adolescents who have behavior problems, as well as an excellent chance to obtain supervisory and research experience and letters of recommendation to help them in their future careers. They have uniformly reported the experience to be the most demanding but also the most rewarding clinical experience of their careers.
Desired qualifications for Lead Counselors include: graduate-level study in clinical psychology, school psychology, mental health counseling, social work, education/special education, or related field of study, or extensive experience in related programs. Applicants should also have research, clinical, leadership, or field experience working or volunteering with children or adolescents. Work in settings such as summer camps, after-school programs, sports programs, daycare programs, and educational programs; and experience with activities such as organized sports, art, music, dance, theater, journalism, photography, and videography is preferred.
Participation in the STP-PreK requires staff members to ensure the safety, well-being and treatment of children and adolescents with mental health, learning, attention and behavior problems. Lead Counselors must be able to visually scan the environment, effectively attend to and hear verbal exchanges between children, provide neutral, corrective feedback on children’s misbehavior (which can