Education psychologist

[sarah876]

My son has been refered to a ed psychologist from a pediatrician so he can have a report so he can make some kind of diagnosis,can someone please tell me what this involves...does this happen at school?

Sarah, the system may be slightly different over here in NI but our Ed Psych saw ds2 at home and in the school setting. He provided us with his report in the home environment. DS2's report was quite lengthy and detailed (he has an asd, s&L difficulties and prob adhd) but it reflected a good balance of positives, some negatives, some areas to work on improvement, etc.

Thankyou HelensMelons, so when you got that report was he formally diagnosed? I have another appointment with the pediatrician after we have seen the ed psychologist which isnt till November. Everything takes so long!

No, again the way it worked for us, may be because we are in NI but DS2 was also attending ICAN Pre School Nursery. So he was seen by the Ed Psych as part of the ICAN package to establish the appropriate educational provision for him to go into next. Over here its P1 (age 4 - 5) so basically the Ed Psych agreed that he needed specialist educational provision due to his speech and language difficulties. He concurred, however, with concerns that ICAN staff had about routines, difficulty moving from task to task, etc. So we then agreed to go down the formal route for assessment.

DS2 then had a formal assessment in our nearest Assessment Centre. This was undertaken by a Senior Speech and Language Therapist and Senior Clinical Medical Officer - she questionned us and the SALT took DS2 off into another room (we could see through 2 way glass). Consequently the SALT then had to assess DS2 in the classroom setting and she went out and we officially got a dx of asd then. Senior Clinical Medical Officer arranged then to come out and see us at home and we formalised everything, ie agreed for it to go on to his statement.

From some of the threads I have read on here though I think the process varies but that is my experience!

The Ed Psych was then involved again this time last year when ds2 moved from that specialist s&L unit to another one.

I'm also in NI.My Dt2 was assessed last June. The EP updated the paed with hr findings. The paed wanted the EP report to see how much of his learning diffs related to his lack of attention and how much to actual LD's. We are still not really clear on that one as the Ep could only come up with what he was minimally capable of as his attention was so poor on the day (not helped by the fact that it was his birthday!)but he has been diadnosed as having DCD and ADHD traits. The assessment took place at school although I would have much preferred to have had it outside school . The EP volunteered to come to our home if we wanted to discuss the report any further after the initial discussion which actually took place in my workplace as the EP was willing to travel (not such a good idea that wasnt)