What exactly does a Educational Psychologist do/look for?

[waterfalls]

Ds and myself have an appointment with one at the school on 2nd Novenber, he is thought to be on the Autistic Spectrum, most likely Aspergers Syndrome.

From my experience, they will probably just help to diagnoise if there is any thing there. They usually do very little, but they are involved in school case conferences for children with Autistim or aspergers, where they give a report on the progress the child is making. Also they are there to help and support you.

p.s it is nothing to worry about.

Thanks KJSW, the word Psychologist did make me panick slightly

When we had an appt with Ed Psych, it invovled a discussion between me and Ed Pysch covering behaviour and his history, then she did some stuff with just him - she had a bag of toys and got them out one by one and saw what he did with them (he's younger than your DS), then she observed him in class. She prepared a very detailed report, which included some specific advice for his preschool. She said on the telephone 'I am not in a position to give diagnoses, though if you were to continue reading around, I'd focus on AS'. her report was v useful to provide in application for DLA and supporting SALT / CDC referrals, and the advice to preschool was good and practical. She has also spoken to me on the phone a couple of times since as I am chosing his primary school, and generally been helpful.

I found it a useful and generally positive experience.

Had our ed psych here today, we just discussed ds2's behaviour and transition from Nursery to school next Sept. She will be visiting him several times at Nursery to gauge what kind of help he will need.

just as everyone else has said, if she is visiting in school then she will observe him probably then speak withyou about how you feel he is coping, what your specific area's of concern over, take a histroy that sort of thing.

Its a very good thing as she will gife lots of advice and may be able to offer a dx

Many thanks ladies, thats very helpful

The role of the ed pysch can depend on where you live and what local education authority they work for. In some areas ed psychs are not allowed to give diagnosis, in other areas they may be able to do so. In some areas they do seem to be involved in some decision making about additional funding. In other areas, they have absolutely no input into this whatsoever.

Generally, the role of the ed psych is to help the school to meet the needs of the child by identifying what are the areas of particular concern and then helping to identify strategies that school staff could implement.

During the visit, the ed psych would generally talk with the teacher about the child's difficulties, the might observe the child in class or the playground and they might do some individual work with the child. When meeting the parents they would probably explain everything that had been said and done and ask for the parents concerns and views on the difficulties the child is experiencing. Once this has been done, they might work with school staff to identify key areas where the child needs support. For example, if a child is on the autistic spectrum, developing social relationships might be an area that has been identified as a concern. They might then try to work out a specific target for the staff to work towards (e.g. to play a turn-taking game with one other child at least once a week) and try to pin point exactly what everyone needs to do to help this target to be met (e.g. teaching assitant to supervise a turn-taking game once a week, social story about turn taking, use of sand-timers to indicate whose turn it is etc.)