Need advice re:education psychologist

teabag29

So I finally met the education psychologist today who will be working with my daughter and she asked me lots of questions about her, like how she gets on with other childre, her temprement, her learning, what I see her problems as etc.

I explained how I felt school werent supportive and that I feel she should be on school action plus (shes 13 this year, has a reading age of 7 cant tell the time, ride a bike, swim, doesnt know her alphabet, months of the year or past her 2 times table) and the ed.psy said "or even statemented as to not be able to do these things by secondary school is worrying". I took this as a positive comment as she agrees with me.

The thing is when she asked how I felt she could help with regards to my daughter I didnt know what to say as i'm not that sure what her role is so I said I would like her to help me with getting dd onto school action plus and more help from the school.

She is coming again on wednesday to meet dd and do some 1 to 1 work with her in school hours. I'd like to be more prepared this time around so wondered if anyone could advise me with what she can actually help with (if anything) other than recommending sap or statment. I have camhs appt next month so i'm hoping they will be able to help with diagnosis but is there anything else the ed psy can do?

daska

Make a list of the individual problems and rank them in terms of the impact on your lives. Consider the costs in terms of time, energy and money as well as the physical risk associated with that behaviour. Ask the Ed psych to review your list and tell you where she feels she might be able to suggest solutions/interventions etc that will have the biggest impact on improving your lives. (Whilst the 'education' part of her title might suggest only school related activities, her role also cover social and emotional problems that affect your daughter's learning.)

Really glad to hear she raised the subject of statementing.

Savvy_Sue

that's a very good idea from daska, of thinking about what you'd most like to improve for your DD and you as a family.

I know physio's not at all the same thing, but when I started it for my shoulder the physio said "and what would you like to get out of this? what would you like to be able to do that you can't do at the moment?" Obviously my immediate response was that I just wanted my arm back, but I did then manage to prioritise it into dressing myself, cutting my own food up, and eventually driving again!

So I think it's a very good question, but it's not surprising you weren't prepared with an answer!