Education Psychologist

[AliR]

I have been offered the chance for dd6 (significant speech delay and probably HFA but at least at grade level for her academics) to see a visiting Educational Psychologist.

Does anyone have any advice about what areas he may be able to help with? We are overseas, and I need to provide him with an idea of what I would like him to cover if we do decide to take up this offer.

Thanks

[LizzyBee]

I would write a narrative that describes your concerns with examples of specific problems and behaviors as well as strengths and progress made. If you can't send this to the psychologist before your meeting, I would take it with you to the meeting. He can decide whether to read it then discuss, or you can use it as an outline for discussion so that you don't leave out anything important. If you're not sure whether he will read it before discussing, I would make a list of bullet points, then highlight key words throughout the narrative to help you remember the important points you want to discuss.

Will the psychologist do any testing, or just discuss potential diagnoses? Our EdPsych expected my 12 yo to have a working memory deficit and my 7 yo to have a slow processing speed, but testing showed the opposite. My 12 yo has a slow processing speed and my 7 yo has a working memory deficit. So a discussion without testing may be helpful, but of limited value, iykwim.

[Paz]

LizzyBee gave you good advice. When we met with Educational Psychologist this year he had given us a form to fill out about dd's birth, childhood development, milestones, and education. I typed out a 1 1/2 page summary of these including how we do school, her stengths and weaknesses, personality, hobbies, etc. He found this helpful. I also brought some samples of her work like writing samples that showed her spelling before revision. (He was mainly testing to determine if she was dyslexic.) He also asked us what questions we were trying to have answered so it may help to formulate what you think may be the problem/difficulties so that he can do appropriate testing.