Being sent for assessment by an educational psychologist.

[wintersdawn]

Hi my ds4 starts school this September and has speech dyspraxia. He was put forward to an early years planning and review meeting last month and we've just been notified that they are putting him forward for an educational psychologist to assess him.

Can anyone who has been through this for speech issues please give me some ideas about what this assessment is like? Also what is this assessment likely to result in?

TIA

In my LA, an EP (for a pre-schooler) would meet the child and family at home, observe the child and chat to the parent(s) / carer((s) about what the child does well, what the child is struggling with, what the parents concerns are, and take some of the history and any other relevant information.
They would then do in to their Nursery / Pre-school group if they attended one and do similar - observe them there (dc are often very different at Nursery from the way they are in their own home), and would chat to the staff to see if this was a 'typical' day, and ask the staff what they felt the child's strengths and areas of difficulty were. Child wouldn't neccessarily be aware they were being observed, although sometimes they do sit down and join in playing with the child.
After that, it depends on how severe they think their needs are. Normally (as child wouldn't get referred unless everyone thought they needed to be) the EP would then call a 'Team Around the Child' meeting, to formally request that the LA make an assessment for an Education, Health, Care Plan.
However I know these things vary in all Local Authorities. The processes are different. Also, some Nursery schools 'buy in' their own EPs, and they may be seeing them to offer advice and strategies rather than for the process of statutory assessment. That is unusual here though, as most of the hours are needed for stat. assessments.

Thanks for the response x