EHCP needs assessment, what to expect?

[nomorespaghetti]

Hello, our LA have just agreed to carry out a needs assessment for my 2.5yo DD, who is profoundly deaf and uses cochlear implants. Despite being told by various professionals and the council that it was very unlikely they'd agree to an assessment it's been relatively pain-free so far (the LA usually like SEN children to go down a pathway that they have devised, but to be quite honest it seems like this is a way for the council to carry out as few needs assessments/issues as few EHCPs as possible, so we requested an assessment ourselves, thanks in large part to excellent advice on this board). We have an NDCS caseworker helping us.

My DD is doing brilliantly with her speech. In a quiet room, one on one, she can be brilliant. She's had intensive speech therapy since she got implants, and I stopped work to focus on her listening and speech development. It's in noisy environments that she struggles, and we feel she needs 1-1, ToD hours, and a radio aid/sound field system at school. She just can't keep up in background noise, mishears frequently (even in quiet environments), can become very frustrated when she can't understand/can't be understood, or can give the impression of having understood something when she actually has no idea what's going on. Without support/technology, DD won't be able to access learning like a hearing child can. She isn't currently behind, and we want the EHCP so that she doesn't fall behind when she enters school, with the inevitable rise in complexity of material and need for constant understanding.

What should i expect from the Ed Psych assessment... How can i demonstrate the significant difficulty DD has in background noise? Any other tips on what to expect from the process, and what we could do to help our chances would be great.

Is she at a nursery or are they doing the assessment at home?

At our assessment the Ed Psych met with us and the nursery SENco prior to his observation of ds. We were able to give him a history and discuss issues that worried us for him starting school. We weren’t there for his observation. His report came out very quickly as there’s only a couple of weeks between the assessment and EHCP decision. In my experience they know they are only seeing a snapshot of your child so they do rely on the information given by you and any school or nursery staff too.

Hi openup thanks for the reply. I don't know where they are doing the observation yet, we only got the letter saying the needs assessment has been approved yesterday, but i will add the to my list of questions to ask the council when i call on Monday.

The senco at nursery is pretty useless, i doubt she could pick dd out of a line up, and I'm sure she'd just say she is doing fine. She has spoken to our teacher of the deaf approximately once, and apparently she spoke over her the whole time (which is something I've experienced too). I'll have a word with the nursery staff though.

She's just at nursery one day and two mornings a week

They will most likely do the assessment at nursery then. Does she have 1:1 support there or Is there a key worker who knows her best that could input? In our case the SENco was best placed to be part of the discussion as she knew him well.

In our case the EP had clearly read the other professional reports (SALT and paed) and referred to them on his laptop while we talked so his observation was not done in isolation. I’m sure that’s not always the case but hopefully you’ll get a good one.