1st meeting with education psycologist next tue-what should I be asking?

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She is going to observe dd3 in playgroup in the morning for a couple of hours and wants me to meet her afterwards.
Dd should have been starting school this month. She has 1:1 in playgroup. I have been told by the early years senco that attended the education panel meeting that an assesment unit has been agreed on but it didn't mention this in the report I was sent, just that they are coming to observe her.
I know I want to ask if she will be going to the unit and when its likely to be but is there anything else I should be asking now at this point that I haven't thought of?

Have you applied for a statement Oso? Remember that you have rights here to express a preference for her education eg if you want mainstream. They will try and fob you with the cheapest option, and only with a statement can you get things like a full time shadow. Ask what methods they think will work best to meet her educational or speech needs. Ask the Ed Psych where he would send your Dd, were she her own child.

No I haven't applied for a statement yet. I do think an assesment unit would be better atm for dd if it means she has more speech therapy input, I don't think she would cope in mainstream yet but I'm hoping that by the time she is 5 and due to start reception class that she can go to mainstream then. Atm she just needs lots of help with her speech mainly, I'm hoping that's what will happen in a unit but not sure as I have no experience of them. Can I ask to visit the unit before she goes there?

Yes you can ask to visit. Must admit I would apply for a statement sooner rather than later, as it all takes ages. You can do it yourself (see bottom right of this page). They kept fobbing me off ("let's wait aNd see how she turns out, let's not put a label on her too soon."). Be pleasant and co-operative, but with a healthy cynicism about their motives , which may not be as good as yours!

Thanks sickof, they are the same with us with regards to the 'wait and see', dd is on a 2year waiting list for asd panel and paed wants to see if her social skills improve when language skills do etc, dd doesn't seem to fall nicely into any particular box atm so we are very much at that 'wait and see' stage

Hi Oso, did the ed psych say if she intended to do any testing with your DD when she's there for the visit? If so, you might want to google "early years standardised testing" - just to get an idea of what the testing comprises and how the scoring percentiles work. If the ed psych does do testing, she probably won't be able to give you the scores immediately but she might be able to give you some indication of how she felt it went.
Good luck for Tuesday, hope it goes well

Hi Marchduck, no she hasn't mentioned any testing but think ill google that just in case she turns around and says she has done that tuesday so I understand what she is talking about a bit more thanks

Would recommend that you go and visit assessment unit and ask probing questions about speech therapy. Ds went to an assessment unit and I also thought he would get more input there. I was told they would do all sorts of therapy it it came down to very little. I was disappointed. This may not be the case with you but I would ask how much individual salt each child receives, who delivers specific speech and language input and also how many children from the assessment unit transfer to mainstream for reception.

I would second the view that it is not inevitably the case that the assessment unit will offer any specific help, it may just be a glorified version of 'wait and see' but my experience was very similar to cansu's so obviously I am biased. I think applying for a statement now and just smiling and nodding at anyone who tries to put you off - tell them to 'wait and see' if you get one !

Thanks cansu and willow, I will go and visit the assesment unit+then ask some questions there. Dd's salt that she sees now said it wouldn't be her that sees dd at the unit, but she will prob be seen once a fortnight by salt+the staff will keep up with the therapy in between that. Whether that's what will happen, or how good they will be at that we will soon find out
Couldn't find much about early years standardised testing via google

Can I suggest that in advance of the appointment, you sit down and write out a timeline of your DD's development. We were asked a lot of questions, some of which we had to answer on the fly and were consequently a bit inaccurate. So what her eye contact was like as a baby, when she smiled, when she crawled, when she walked, when she babbled etc etc etc. Think about stuff like eye contact, first words, if she lost language, pointing (sigh), sleeping, routines too. We for example declared that DD had never pointed. Last week I found a video of her pointing at eighteen months, and another one where she pointed at 2.

Thanks mummytomog, I didn't realise they might ask so many questions about her development, thanks ill have to think about them tonight as I wouldn't know them all accurately otherwise. Dd has never pointed but I do remember that she used to wave, before she was one year old, but doesn't anymore. Can I ask, did they do some kind of early years testing with you? Dd has yet to have any kind of proper assesment (apart from hv+paed observing her+asking us questions)

No, but it was a slightly odd appointment, in that we were at her nursery (in a primary school) and he'd been to see her first. We didn't realise that would happen, and I wasn't a big fan of that (or him to be honest). I suspect they're all very different, but it's worth being prepared just in case they do ask these sorts of questions. If they don't, someone else will at a later stage. We've had no formal assessment. They were happy to refer us, but we chose not to and wait and see if her social development catches up when her language does. We've found it quite a bruising experience so far, and if one more person had criticised my pfb I was going to explode. But that's just my experience, and how I was feeling at the time. If there isn't a significant change in the next six months, we will go ahead with assessment.

That's what I've been told will happen tomorrow, she will come and observe dd in the morning in her playgroup and then wants to see me afterwards about 11.30. I have no idea if they just observe or do any kind of test/assesment but I'm glad I get to go and talk to them afterwards.

Oso, sorry I should have said that the testing my DD had when the EP saw her was the British Ability Scales (BAS3). I think there might be other ones though.
The EP came to see us the week after she had observed and tested DD at pre-school. She told us about the assessment and gave us the test scores. I had never heard of it before and I didn't really know what she was talking about. As far as I can gather,for early years it tests verbal ability, non-verbal ability and spatial ability. You get a "standard" score for each of these, which can be compared against the percentile of the population e.g. 10% of children would be expected to get a similar or lower score. You then get an overall measure of cognitive functioning using the scores obtained from the three tests.
I would have like to have known a bit more about it in advance so that I could have asked the EP about DD's scores. Afterwards, I was found a little bit through Google from the company that produces the BAS3 - I think it was their website where EPs etc can purchase the testing package - it didn't give much information, but it was better than nothing. I got a written report from the EP about a month later which recorded the scores etc. I found it quite hard to see some of the scores on paper - not good!
Like MummytoMog has said, the EP also asked us quite a bit about DD's early development, and she also recorded this in the report.

Good luck for tomorrow

Thanks marchduck that's great I'll try googling that. I'm starting to feel quite nervous for tomorrow, not sure why, maybe because she hasn't had any kind of assesment yet, not that includes scoring anyway,I'm scared about seeing scores, like you said its hard to see them on paper. Thanks for ur help.