Educational Psychologists aim to assess a whole child and whole situation picture of a child or young person’s strengths and needs in the least intrusive way possible. This means we will gather lots of information from their school, any other professionals involved and yourself.
An Educational Psychologist works collaboratively with teachers, parents/carers and other professionals to develop an understanding of a child’s needs and provides advice about how best those working directly with the child can help them learn, and reach their educational potential. Assessment involves consultation with teachers, and colleagues from other agencies and analysis of information to help understand difficulties and identify strengths
which can be built on. It also involves developing an understanding of the context in which learning is taking place and identifying changes that may be helpful.
We aim to always include the child or young person’s view but do not always gather views directly. Sometimes we might observe your child in person or virtually, sometimes we might do direct assessment with them and sometimes we might ask other people to do assessment which we then analyse. We follow the principles of the Educational Psychology Assessment in Scotland (2014) paper.
Assessment is a dynamic process which can also involve considering the effectiveness of any changes and interventions.
