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Why Test? What will it involve?How do I go a about it?"Parents
are frequently advised to have their child assessed by an Educational
Psychologist especially where there has been a severe and persistent difficulty
in acquiring literacy which has resisted usual teaching methods. Why an Educational
Psychologist ? An Educational
Psychologist is a psychologist who uses psychological theory and approaches
within an educational context. As well as studying Psychology to Master degree
level an Educational Psychologist will also be a trained and experienced
teacher. An Educational Psychologist will be able to explore the reasons why your child is finding literacy difficult to acquire through an in-depth assessment and will be able to suggest methods to overcome such difficulties. What
will the assessment involve? The purpose of
the assessment is to generate an understanding of what is happening, why acquiring
literacy is so difficult for your child and what can be done to make a
difference. It will involve cognitive
assessment together with information gathered from parents, teacher and your
child. Information gathered from
these sources is vital in validating the information gathered from cognitive
assessment. What is
Cognitive Assessment ? Cognitive assessment
involves a range of tests which look at abilities such as thinking, understanding,
remembering, and solving puzzles as well as spoken arithmetic
and basic general knowledge. The results are compared with scores
obtained nationally by children of the same age. Two forms of
assessment commonly used by Educational Psychologists are the British Ability
Scales ( BAS II) and the Wechsler Intellegence Scale for Children ( WISC III) Often
Educational Psychologists will administer additional assessment involving phonological
awareness and visual-perceptual skills. The cognitive
assessment will provide data describing your child's own particular pattern of
strengths and weaknesses and together with observations from other sources e.g.
parents, school will enable the Educational Psychologist to suggest ways forward
in supporting your child What else will the
Educational Psychologist Do ? An Educational Psychologist
will be interested in the particular learning style your child favours.
They will also want to know how successful your child feels as a learner and how
this affects their overall motivation to learn. The psychologist may use and
suggest solution -focused therapy to promote successful learning and
raise self-esteem. How can
my child be referred to an Educational Psychologist In general, for pupils in
the state sector the child's school will refer a pupil to an LEA Educational
Psychologist through the Code of Practice Procedures following
consultation with a pupil's parents. For children in the
independent sector the head of the school will be able to suggest the names of
one or two private chartered educational psychologists practising in the area. Alternatively parents may
contact private Educational Psychologists using the handbook of Chartered
Educational Psychologists produced by the British Psychological Society.
This is often available within local libraries. Information kindly provided by Siobhan Aubin, trained LEA Psychologist and specialist in Dyslexia and Children with special learning difficulties
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