No Ed Psych referral until ds stops making progress at school

[MollieO]

Ds (6.3, yr 2) diagnosed earlier in the year with poor visual sequential memory both pictorial and symbolic. Affects his concentration, reading, spelling.

His behaviour wasn't good in year 1 but has deteriorated further in year 2 - lots of emphasis on concentration, spelling tests, dictation etc.

I asked the SENCO if now was the time to refer him to an Ed Psych to see if there was some strategy that could be employed to help ds. SENCO replied saying that ds needs to learn to behave and concentrate in class seemingly failing to realise the reason he doesn't is because of his diagnosed visual sequential memory difficulties.

She categorised his behaviour as 'attention seeking' and said no referral until he stops making progress.

He is within average limits for his age group hence the reluctance to refer. The SENCO/school's answer to ds not doing his homework is to keep him at break time to do it. To my mind this deals with the symptom, not the underlying cause.

I don't know what to do now and frankly am at the end of my tether. I have asked for a meeting with the SENCO to discuss ds's new IEP (which I'm told will be sent this week).

What should I say/do? My concern is if they leave referral to an EP until ds stops completely it will become impossible to motivate him.

School is private so no LEA involvement.

I should add that he is significantly behind in his reading and very poor at spelling.

Can you go private for the ed psych? You can't force the school to refer your DS if they are refusing to see it as necessary but you could do something yourself and present them with the report. I believe the school then have an obligation to consider putting the points into the IEP.

Sounds like the SENCO doesn't understand your DS's condition which must be incrediably annoying.

I want to try and get the Senco on side as I assume the Ed Pysch will want their input. I plan to write out a long list of questions before our meeting.

Ds has an hour a week with the Senco but I think rather than dealing with his memory issues she is getting him to do his homework with her. Doing that won't help his underlying issues.

Fair enough but it doesn't sound like the SENCO will be able to add anything useful - if she isn't even helping your DS in the hour he is allotted then she isn't really helping at all.

A list of questions is a great idea. I tend to forget half of what I want to say when I am in the meeting because they usually go off at a tangent if you don't have some sort of agenda.

If you don't get any satisfaction from the SENCO after the meeting then I would seriously think about going private. If it is a private school do they use a private ed psych? Could you find out who they are and self refer?

I'm a lot more focused on what the issues are than I probably was when he was first diagnosed. I've emailed the SENCO today to sort out a meeting date and also emailed ds's class teacher to ask her to attend too (she is also the deputy head). I think I also need to be more critical of how the IEP is worded (the last one seemed a bit vague).

I know the name of the Ed Psych the school use and I suppose I could self refer but I'm worried that the SENCO/class teacher will see that as undermining what they have said.

I also emailed the class teacher to say I disagreed with ds being kept in at break time as this doesn't deal with the cause. Would rather have said that in person but I only drop off in school on Wednesdays and she wasn't there today. The school breaks up for half term on Friday for two weeks.

Get a private ed psych. They cost between £150 and £300 and come to your house to do any testing.
My ds age 8 has struggled at school since he started, he can't read, can write a bit but all I ever here is he is making progress.
The school will not have him tested as they say he has made slight improvements.
I wanted him tested for us not for the school, I want to know where he is at and how to help him improve.

I have an ed psych coming in the morning, I haven't told the school. I want to see what she has to say first and then I can speak to the school with a report that should help everyone concerned meet his needs.

I'm also having him tested by a behavoural optometrist.

I can't really afford to have these tests done but I need to know what his problems are if any.
I booked the appointment with the ed psych in july so we haven't had to wait too long.

Go for it, I felt nothing but relief when I booked the appointment.

Danthe4th I'd be interested to know how you get on.

I've got a meeting arranged for after half term and ds is also seeing our GP during half term to see what he can suggest. GP is also a paediatric registrar at our local hospital so can fast track any course of action.

You wonder at what stage schools do take action and how bad the progress has to be. I feel bad enough on how things are for ds at 6 I can only wonder how upset I'd be if he was still struggling when he is 8.

Like you I'm keen to know where ds is at and also what his potential is. If he is struggling because he isn't capable of any more then I would be less concerned but still want to ensure he is taught in a way best suited to his learning style.

Found out today that the SENCO has agreed to an Ed Psych referral.

Ds had to redo the spellings he got wrong in his spelling test. He still got them wrong despite having written them out several times for homework. His form teacher was surprised as he has beautiful handwriting (according to her). Not sure that has anything to do with how he actually learns though.

Feel happier that the school are now agreeing with my concerns. Had a chat with the form teacher and we both agreed that the EP will be useful to help devise a strategy for enabling ds to do well at school.

I do think that if I hadn't turned into the nightmare pushy emailing parent this week we'd be no further forward. That makes me sad as I don't think I should have had to do that.

Oh that is good news! Well done!

Interesting the teacher is driving this forward not the SENCO. I get the feeling that too many SENCOs aren't properly trained and that the one you are dealing with is one of them.

You are right that you shouldn't have to be pushy to get something out of them. I do think some children must miss out if they have parents who just don't realise there is a problem or they are in denial themselves about what is wrong. All a bit sad really.

I hope the ed psych is helpful and you get an appointment soon.

I think she is qualified looking at the various letters after her name. From what she has said previously she honestly didn't think there would be much to gain from seeing an Ed Psych at his age and it would be better left until he was a bit older, say 7 (which won't be before next summer).

Interestingly I know for a fact that he would have been referred already if his behaviour was disruptive to other pupils I assume because the school are worried about other parents complaining. In ds's case he doesn't cause any disruption in class at all so the only person he affects his himself.

Mollie - How did you get your son diangosed with the poor memory problem? Who did it?

(Sorry, just asking because I need to help my DD...)

He had a nightmare start to yr 1 where he refused to do anything in class (bit like this year tbh). Difference last year was he had a very shouty teacher which just made him worse. She wanted him tested but he had to be 5.5 to have the test. It was the Aston Index. Quite a wide ranging test that the SENCO did over about three sessions and I got a report (at private school so it cost £20).

By the time he was 5.5 he had settled down a bit and the teacher said he didn't need testing. I insisted he was mainly to prove her wrong. We were both surprised that anything came out of it.

The test revealed that ds had a very poor visual sequential memory both symbolic and pictorial. This affected reading, spelling and concentration mainly. All issues with ds.

No idea what caused it but GP (is also a paediatric registrar) reckons that probably stems from ds being 7 weeks prem.

He has been having two 30 min sessions every week where the SENCO does different exercises with him (although recently she has been doing classwork, which I'm not happy about having to pay for that at the detriment of memory developing skills).

We are now at the stage where his concentration on any non-school stuff is excellent (eg out of school activities like rugby) but still rubbish in school. As a result he is slow in doing work and falling behind.

I have been a really pushy parent this week and insisted he should be referred to an Ed Psych (which I'll have to pay for). SENCO was reluctant as he is still of average ability in the class and progressing despite doing next to nothing.

I didn't want to wait until progress ground to a halt (as the SENCO suggested) as I'm worried about expectations in yr 2 (work rate is ramped up after half term apparently) and terrified about the huge leap that occurs in yr 3.

I feel a bit as if it now or never to get ds back on track to do well at school, my definition of which is fulfilling his potential whether that be top/middle/bottom of the class.

Out of school he is an articulate and curious child (vocab result in the test was exceptional) so I know there is more going on in his head than he is showing at school. Ultimately I want him to be happy and he is getting frustrated about his school work (and therefore refusing to do it) but neither I nor his teacher know why.

Hi just join the site after reading this thread. My son has been having some problems at school since last December. Asks for the Ed Psych to be involved got told no. In the end I had enough so I phoned the local council to contact the LEA, then ask about the Ed Psych for school. In the end I had a chat with the Head of Ed psych for school. To get to the point they are now involved with my son at school. So tell the head/senco to sort it out or you will phone them yourself. It work for me, so give it a try. Wish you all the best.

Had call from cons paed at the CDC today. No Ed psych referral from them even though she thinks that ds's problems stem from being a prem. Makes me cross that we are left high and dry by both the LEA and the NHS because Ds is at private school.