educational psychologists

[puppydavies]

anyone with experience dealing with ed psychs care to share them? i'm particularly keen to hear what makes the difference between a good and bad experience.

cheers

shameless bump

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eek

no cat but would appreciate an email socci.

puppydavies at hotmail dot co dot uk

i'd like to hear as many stories as poss - good and bad - cos i'm wondering whether to train as an ed psych and wanted hear what makes a good one. plus why people might have had crap experiences too - whether it's to do with the individuals or the system, kwim?

am also trawling the archives...

We paid for a private ed psych. He was absolutely superb and worth every penny. He was good because:
He was a very experienced teacher
Very experienced and highly qualified in the field of his specialism
He requested and received detailed information in advance from us
He clearly took a lot of time to read and review this information
He listened well to our request as to what we were interested in, and what we were no interested in, and addressed his comments and findings to those areas.
He was very clear to us in what we should expect in terms of timings of the consultation, and timescale for receiving the report; and of course what the fees would be.

Anything else specific you want to know, please let me know.

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No. All EPs have a psychology degree, or they wouldn't be accredited by the BPS. The old system was accredited psych degree, QTS, 2 years mainstream teaching experience, MSc in EP. The new system will not require QTS or teaching experience, and the 3 year doctorate instead of the MSc.
Interesting that roisin gives "very experienced teacher" as a reason why her EP was so good.

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yes i'm interested in the importance of teaching experience too (specifically cos i don't have any ). i wonder why that requirement has been dropped, is it really irrelevant?

No, IMO it's absolutely crucial. If EPs are going to make recommendations about what teachers/TAs etc. should do in schools to help the children, then they need their feet very firmly welded to the floor based on the grim reality of day-to-day life and pressures in schools. There are all sorts of educational consultants about, and you can spot the useless ones a mile off. They live in cloud cuckoo land and have not idea, (or have completely forgotten), the realities of school-life.

Roisin, could I possibly CAT you for the details of your ed psych? We had one for ds who was OK, but did the all-too-frequent thing of touting for business by highlighting ds' "nervousness" (yeh, right) and saying it could be cured by a few sessions with him. Fortunately we knew the type and didn't take up his offer.

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Fauve - yes, do CAT me.

so is there anyone at all who's had a positive experience of an lea ed psych?

I was thinking of retraining as an Ed Psych. I am a teacher and have experience in mainstream teaching Science, Maths and working with children with SEN. I am now doing a Psych degree. But the changes to the requirements have made that almost impossible for me. I am half way through a 4 year degree (part-time) and then would have to do a three-year doctorate, and there are no universities which offer it near me.

IME as a teacher, the good EdPsychs know what is appropriate and possible for the child AND the school. Not considering both of these aspects renders their advice unworkable. Removing the teaching requirement will remove EPs even further from the situations they are supposed to support, and that cannot be a good thing surely?

And I am quite shocked ny your experience of unaccredited EPs Socci. That is awful. I may emphasis the importance of teaching experience but surely a psychologst must have psych knowledge as well. That is dreadful!

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Fauve - thanks for your CAT. I've emailed you.

soz I know this was a couple of days ago now.

My experience was a bad one. took me 2 years to get a ed psyc. I was in the room when he was assessing my child, advantages and disadvantages to that. But on this occasion it was a good job i was. He had set my dd2 some maths questions to answer, was not interested in how she worked out the answers just that she had got them wrong. BUT if he had been looking at how she had qorked them out he would have seen that she was qorking from left to right instead of working right to left!!! I do not think this was very good at all because surely how they are working out is as important as whether the answer is right or wrong!!! Soz again just my two penth