Educational Psychologist - what to expect? STEPS Northumberland

[worriedsilly]

Hello

Dc is being assessed by an educational psychologist (privately) and I wondered what to expect? We have concerns about anxiety and also handwriting issues, so we are so tired of wondering and stressing we are just going to bite the bullet and get on with it.

Apart from a £400-£800 price tag what can we expect? I know dc will be be tested in some way but I don't know what else. Will dc be seen alone or with me (I'm going with, it's an overnight job) and will I be asked questions etc etc etc etc.

Any top tips would be good. Thanks.

P.S. it's a lady called Ruth Waterhouse at Steps in Northumberland, if anyone has met or experienced the service that would be very cool.

Hi
Just wondering why you have to pay for it? Does the service in your area have a long waiting list?
If its a local authority they often give out leaflets and a letter about what to expect on your first meeting. Maybe if you ask you will find they offer these people do too.
At that price they should be able to afford it. Certainly you should expect a bloody good service for £800
Good luck with it.

How old is your dc?

We filled in lots of forms - questionnaire type - in advance; and also wrote (at length) about our concerns.

At the assessment session itself we all sat round a table first and had a general discussion; then I sat some distance away (but in the same room) whilst the assessments took place.

Then we sat and played a game together whilst the EP went off to mark the tests.

After lunch ds1 watched a DVD and chilled out, and we went for some initial feedback with the EP and the raw score results.

The full, detailed report arrived a few weeks later.

FWIW it was money well spent for us and was an incredibly positive experience and proved to be incredibly helpful in the longrun: this was 7 years ago!

Thank you roisin, that's intersting. Was the feedback purely academic or did you gain an insight in to what makes your ds tick?

gaunyerseljeannie our school does not feel there is any particular issue as dc achieves well and is doing ok in their experience. We see the ticks and anxiety so we feel differently, so in reality I doubt the LEA would be interested in funding anything. Particulary as dc actually works at or above expected levels overall.

We do have some specific issues though, which is one of our concerns. In a long line of good achievement to have one or two areas of specific issues is ringing alarm bells for me and I don't want any problems to become entrenched.

The person we are going to has given us a run down of the day, but I am interested in other mums experiences of a day like this to make me feel more confident going. If that makes sense.

The immediate feedback was academic and about his performance in the tests and particular areas of strength.
Far more useful was the longer report which covered wider issues, gave suggestions for strategies for us and school and him, and also provided an extended list of suggested reading material. This was invaluable to me and fascinating.
ds was 7. How old is your dc?

Same age, I think it's a good age for this. Late enough for them to be..well..themselves. Early enough to hopefully stop problems becoming entreched.

That sounds posotove roisin. Good We are all really looking forward to the appointment, dc is loking forward to the tests

That sounds good..... think you need to change your name to positiveaction!!
Good luck, hope it all goes well..........I'll say nothing more about the price

Hey thought I'd update

We had the day with the Ed Psy and it went well, dc enjoyed it lots. The report is pending and it looks like she is very bright indeed, actually much more than we realised. I mean, I knew she was good and had a flair for thinking but I didn't think it would register so uniformly across the board.

I now feel totally shell shocked and a bot frightened. This is a huge responsibility. Nothing that is standard and assumed about school and friends and learning seems to apply to her. We are left feeling we may need develop very individual learning and parenting.

I have no guide book on how to do that!