Information for Parents: Your child’s assessment with the educational psychologist

Some people are not sure what to expect when they are told their child will ‘need to see an Educational Psychologist’. Here is an outline of the session to prepare you.

Your child will be assessed by a fully qualified Educational Psychologist with much experience. The type, content and length of the assessment will depend on the information that is already available as well as your child’s particular difficulties. Information provided by the school or any other agency may be used to build up an understanding of your learning history.

It is possible that literacy, memory, organisation or other difficulties are affecting your child’s ability to learn effectively. The assessment will enable the Educational Psychologist to identify your child’s strengths and weaknesses to help them become a more effective learner.

The session, in many cases, is likely to be made up of:

An assessment of a variety of cognitive abilities. Tell your child not to worry – this is not about ‘passing’ or ‘failing’. Your child’s performance on a range of items will allow the psychologist to consider their strengths and weaknesses and may highlight why some styles of learning are more or less effective for them.
A literacy assessment. The psychologist will seek information about your child’s past and current reading, spelling and writing skills.
A consideration of other factors which may be affecting your child’s learning.

At the end of the assessment, you and your child will be provided with some feedback. This discussion will focus on ways to help your child become more confident about learning. A written report will be provided within a few weeks. Keep a copy of this, as you may well need it at a later date. We recommend you take the opportunity to discuss its contents with appropriate school staff such as the Special Needs Coordinator (SENCo).

The session is designed to help you and your child understand more about their learning and is confidential.

The assessment session will take approximately one and a half hours and will take the form of a one-to-one session with your child. Following this you will be invited to the brief feedback session. Initial recommendations arising from this feedback will be in the report.