Meeting with Ed Psych on Monday about DS, what to ask about pls

[JoDeeMagi]

Hoping for some advice please - ds is in Y3, age 7.5. He is still having speech and lang therapy, which he has had since Reception, and has progressed very well.

the meeting with the EP isn't specifically about S&L, DS has had an IEP since Y1 as he struggles with concentration/focussing.

DS saw an EP in Y2 who we weren't very impressed with, but I also wasn't well prepared myself when meeting with her after she saw DS.

I would like to be more prepared this time and on reading the report wondered what other MNtters thought:

the EP used BAS II cognitive assessment - the core scale of a measure of DSs ability to understand instructions was 27th centile. The ability to name pictures was 46th centile. A non-verbal reasoning test was 92nd centile.

She also used B/G Steem, DS appeared to have a strong external locus of control, i.e sees factors outside himself as having a bigger influence on his behaviour than things he does himself and his self-esteem was in the low range.

I hadn't really correlated the S&L difficulties with DSs cognitive ability, but judging from the 27th centile score they seem to be related? any thoughts gratefully received. thank you!

bumping (I know you have all been Christmas shopping)

might put this in Behaviour topic ...

I am no expert at all but I thought the 92nd centile non verbal reasonsing sounds really good. I hope there is someone on MN WHO understands more about this. Peronally I think use low self-esteem as a catch-all phrase too much nowadays . He is only 7 FFS! But I may be wrong and I wish you luck with the meeting - my own strategy nowadays is to go in expecting bad news, as every single time I've gone in full of hope it's been dashed to the ground, so at least this way I can only be pleasantly surprised. But my DS is ASD so I think it is very different. Good luck!

Thanks Aquariusmum - 92nd centile is (I think) slightly above the average, I'm concerned at such a wide range between that and 27th centile on the other test.

DS has also lately (I am 100% sure since he saw the EP but I didn't realise straight away) been really worried about things, things that have happened a while ago, eg "mum, I hit xxx" me: "oh, when was this?" DS: "when I was in Year 1" (2 years ago) (dealt with at the time, I'm sure). Or he will tell me he kicked the door, or threw a toy down the stairs (in the past).

also, 4 days after seeing EP, we were in Tescos and he started talking about "swapping mummy and daddy", he had these thoughts in his head, and would get these thoughts when he saw a particular lady/man on TV, which is worrying both for him and me. I really need to know what to say to the EP about this.

Sorry, Aquariusmum, you have had such a crushing time on your visits.

It would make sense that ds ability to understand instructions is linked to s&l and worrying and concentration, who wouldn't have problems concentrating when they weren't sure whats going on? I hope the ep is helpful, it seems you need some stratergies on ds accessing instructions. I am a teacher, and my experince is that ep's often don't have many answers but seeing them is essential if the child is to get sen provision. btw 92nd percentile is way above average, v. clever boy.

IF he only started talking about bad things he did in the past after the EP visit, did she ask him questions about anger and doing bad things? He may just be a very impressionable child who worries about things (I was like that as a child myself, would ponder on things for hours and obsess about doing the wrong thing, still am a bit). All children have funny feelings about things, but only as they grow up do they learn to put them in the right box IYKWIM - IE to disregard them as just phantom musings. My NF daughter has written "I hate myself" in her school book, and I don't know whether to question her about it or just leave it as her privacy. She is 6! I am just ranting on meaninglessly I know, but I think there is a danger sometimes of medicalising things which are just part of normal childhood development. The good thing you have JODEEMAGI is that he is close enough to you to tell you about all these feelings, and thus you can put them in context for him and give him a reality check. I wish you good luck with the EP - they can be cold fish I always found.

Separately, ISLAMUM, can you give me some advice as a teacher on what things I should be doing to make sure my ASD son can "access the curriculum" at mainstream school, as they have started muttering about whether it's the right placement for him, and I really think it is (plus there are no other decent schools for him to go to if this fails). He can count, and does painting and gluing and PE alongside the other kids quite well. It's only nursery, but I feel they are going to "test" him next term and need some advice.

I teach secondary, but my experince with asd is that teachers need to be aware, and need frequent reminding about how to treat an asd child, using very straight forward language, allowing them to work alone if he wants, giving time out etc. Meet the senco before he starts and discuss stratergies. All kids are different, some sit on their own some interact with a few friends, we have one who puts his coat on backwards when it all gets too much! My experience is that special schools are massivly over subscribed - our local secondary has two applications for every place, and they will only suggest placing him there if he really can't cope in mainstream, if hes doing well in nursery no reason why he should struggle in school. Good luck.

Thanks Islamum, that is very good advice and I will make sure I talk to both teacher and SENCO - especially about using simple language and giving him time-outs to get his physical energy out by bouncing or climbing! Sorry to hijack threa, Jodeemagi, have you had any further meetings yet?

Thank you for your responses, didn't come away from meeting with much more confidence in EPs, she just seemed to want to me to give her the answers, I thought it was supposed to be the other way around! I asked her about DSs worries since her meeting with him, she said nothing had been brought up, she noticed DS had had worries when he was seen by the last EP, maybe DS was remembering back to the last visit and associating worries with the two, etc. Not likely I thought.

Sounds like you did not get much help here JodeeMagi. They are a bit limp these EPs aren't they?