I am an LA educational psychologist, AMA.

[summerEP]

Really enjoy reading the AMA threads so thought I would offer my own. I work for an LA as an EP and completed my training within the last 3 years. AMA.

As she has a recognised disability she is entitled to reasonable adjustments. She doesn't need further testing, or a form 8, she just needs to have evidence that it is usual way of working and has a significant impact on her ability to demonstrate what she knows. She would also be entitled to rest breaks and prompting if she loses focus.

General adjustments would be individualised for the needs of the child but I often find for asd they centre around reducing anxiety, increasing predictability, teaching social comms skills and supporting sense of belonging (amongst others). This can be to a greater or lesser degree depending on my formulation of the child's barriers to learning. Standardised cog assessment scores are only 1 part of the puzzle and by themselves do not tell us a huge amount as the conifence intervals often span a very wide range (meaning a child can score 2nd percentile but can range between 1st and 25th for example). This means that if a child scored low in comprehension I would choose to do observations and other one to one work with the child to hypothesise exactly what may be underpinning their difficulties then make a choice on provision from there.

Just briefly I would be wondering around the child's perception of the function of language and whether they see it as needed, as well as anxiety amongst other things. Then once I felt I had a good sense of what may be going on I would suggest how to make using verbal language beneficial to the child (if the former was the case) or reduce their anxiety if the latter was the case. Can be much more complicated than that but that's a basic answer

How would they be “justified” in attacking the OP?

What is really the core of your role? From the job title it sounded to me like someone who understands (and hence can help parents and teachers understand) what might make children the way they are in an educational setting and what they therefore need to learn well. But in reality it seems to be more about monitoring for the LA what schools are doing for SEN children and deciding on funding?

They weren't.
They were justifiably angry about whatever had happened with their SEN kids.
None of which was the fault of the ed psych who set up the AMA who could do nothing about their situations of course, but those angry people vented at the OP so much the thread was removed.

do you diagnose autism?
are you happy with the teaching/support offered

Have you ever had to defend your reports at a SENDIST tribunal?

Do your LA allow you to freely write 1-1 support into your reports or do you only generally do that when under pressure of tribunal?

Ah interesting one. Like NHS staff we are all registered with the hcpc and our work is grounded in the bps code of ethics. We would lose our license if we were found to act unethically and have 3 years doctoral training which primarily centres around managing such ethical conflicts and keeping the child in the centre. Obviously there will be some poor choices made out there as in any profession, but generally the same goes for us whether we are paid by the LA, parent or school. We are trained to try to reflect on unconscious or conscious bias towards our 'client' and ensure that our work is ethical and has the best interests of the child in mind. Many EPs work half the week for an LA and half the week as a private EP. There will be examples where any professional acts unethically, but I do not get a sense from within the profession that LA EPs are more biased than private ones. l would not change my report to meet LA funding requirements for example. The only way our hands are tied is with the time we have to spend on each report but again we are ethically bound to ensure they are representative of the child's needs.

I worked as support staff and did extra training in a variety of therapies and interventions, completed a psychology conversion and then got a place on the doctorate. It's competitive but doable, your experience sounds great. Just keep reflecting on the psychology you are using in your role and think systemically.

I have a son who hates loud noises, particularly other children crying. It means that he doesn’t like going to nursery, struggles with play dates sometimes and I’m worried about what school will be like. Some people have suggested ear defenders but I’m not sure about this in case they then become more and more needed and he just lives in ear defenders. He hates loud noises beyond just the normal amount. He is also very switched on regarding other peoples emotions. Much more than other kids his age and has a good understanding of social situations. So I’m not sure if the crying is about the noise or about him being upset that others are upset and feeling it too deeply. Any suggestions?

Sorry that was a reply to the other poster, I quotes the wrong thing. Hard to keep up!

I have not noticed any pressure in the LA I work in. I write the report then it goes to panel so when I assess I do not know the LA'S views. I only provide one part of the advice, the OT, SALT, health and social care also contribute so decision are based on all those identified needs.

@summerEP thanks! No worries 😀

in an ideal world teachers and sencos are well positioned to assess and know this, however they are so stretched they are often not able to due to pressures and time. The EP is first and foremost a psychologist, not an educationalist who is brought in to look systemically at the environment, relational difficulties, barriers to learning, past trauma, attachment needs etc. So that will not be needed for the majority of children who would better benefit from teachers being given the time to be able to do their jobs properly (don't get me into a rant about government funding for schools).

I will only do standardised cognitive assessments in a very few cases. There are a wide variety of situations where the results would not be very useful, for example where a child was experiencing significant anxiety, a child was highly distracted, or experienced significant trauma in the past. The results would likely be confounded and therefore not representative of the child's actual cognitive performance. Then they would be labelled as having slow processing which may become stuck on the child so to speak, when in fact its other things going on. We often don't need a score to know a child struggles with their memory, teachers see that in their interactions with the child every day for example. Standardised cog assessments are very one dimensional, they. An make up a small part of the puzzle but as a psychologist, I am much more interested in observing the child in their setting, speaking to those who know them best and talking/working directly with them dynamically to see how they learn.

It coukd possibly help if your friend noticed issues before her daughter had covid? I think its about making sure the daughter is getting the right adaptions necessary in school and maybe an EP coukd identify what they are if she feels school hVe not been able to.

Ah yes, we are reminded regularly to be more specific and not tentative to fall in line with the ehc requirements. As psychologists we hold things tentatively in mind a lot so the specificity part of ehc's is hard for us even though we know it's a requirement! I'maways trying to make sure I'm as quantified and specific as possible but it is hard as it's at odds with psychological thinking often.

If a child twigs they are being observed in a classroom (my DD can tell something is going on a mile away), or a child doesn't engage 121 due to anxiety for example, can this affect the content of any report?

There may have been a reason the EP didn't visit the setting but I would normally do so to speak to the senior and young person. We don't do dyslexia assessments, we don't diagnose dyslexia but may look into literacy difficulties if needed. Our role is to ensure the provision or interventions are appropriate for the child and often we can get a good sense of that without standardised assessments (sometimes they are needed though if the school doesn't have a lot of info)

Ah replied above to this but quotes the wrong post. Your experience sounds very relevant! Just keep reflecting on psychology and look up the doctoral applicant Facebook page it's super useful.

Oh god! I do understand the strength of feeling though, EPs are often unduly placed in a gatekeeper role by the system and our children are our world's. I have 2 so I know! :-)

The EP is first and foremost a psychologist, not an educationalist who is brought in to look systemically at the environment, relational difficulties, barriers to learning, past trauma, attachment needs etc.

I do wish I had understood the difference between what an EP would cover and what an OT would cover before DD had her assessment (which didn't include an OT ). Our EP seemed to have her own 'agenda' on our zoom call, which to our view didn't tally with what we considered the most pressing issues to be.

Question: Do you think parents are well enough informed as to what your role does / does not actually cover?

Yes it's very hard. Same for nhs staff I imagine.

Why don’t you diagnose dyslexia?
My son was seen by LA EPs from the age of 5, his literacy difficulties were noted but not seen as a major concern. When he was 11 he saw a private Ed Psych who explicitly told us he was severely dyslexic and needed much more specialist intervention. He’s now 13 and at a specialist dyslexia school. My son has multiple complex needs but being able to separate some out with for example the dyslexia diagnosis has been really important in accessing the help he needs.