Stage3 special needs register

my daughter saw the educational psycologist today at the mencap centre which she attends.

how old is your child?

My situation was as follows:

I knew from around p2 or p3 that my child was learning differently to other children, performing well below average at school etc. During primary school I had three different educ psych reports provided, there was no diagnosis and my child was identified as being "between" abilities, i.e. bad enough to benefit from additional support but not bad enough to warrant it. I fought the whole way through primary school to get help but what was provided was not official classroom asst time but shared with other pupils with a variety of needs. Same carry-on in secondary school, my child has been streamed in the lowest ability stream, it took all of the first year to get the educ psych report, believe me that is just the beginning, I have been in constant contact with the EA and talk about a place that drags their heels and moves goal posts. It has taken most of the second year to get anything in place, since just after Easter my child has been given 10 hrs per week of official classroom assistant help, which I had to insist was prioritized to English and Maths which means that my child misses one period a week of other curricular classes which the school deem "less important" i.e. music, Irish, LLW, so that the classroom assistant can do one-to-one support for my child.

The whole system is a nightmare, I would advise you to keep on the Educ Psychologist's back and the EA the whole time as they will have so many other parents and children demanding their attention to. Good luck, I hope things work out for your child and you, maybe things will be more straightforward for you if you get a diagnosis of a specific learning condition etc. I wish you well xx

I work in a primary school and apparently we can only refer two children per school year to ed psych. I'm sure you can imagine the problems this has caused. Most children are waiting until at least P3 before they are seen and this is not an instant answer for the child. We have one child who only now has been given 12.5 hrs/week in P3 and the school year is almost over. It has taken almost 2 years for this to happen and what makes it worse is that despite the job being advertised there have been no applicants.This is most probably due to the small amount of hours.
My advice is to keep fighting for help using all the channels you can because if something is not put in place before your child begins primary school chances are you will have a very long road ahead.:mad:

I understand where you are coming form. Some kids just need that somebody to keep them on task.