Educational psychologists work to improve the learning and wellbeing of all children
We work to support children and young people who experience a wide range of additional support needs (ASNs). For example, children and young people who may:
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- Find communicating difficult e.g. have trouble expressing themselves or find playing with others tricky
- Find an area or areas of learning difficult e.g. are having trouble learning to read or remember things
- Might be feeling low, worried, angry or want to hurt themselves
- Have a disability or sensory impairment
- Have been in the care of the Local Authority at any point
As well as working to support children with ASNs, EPs work in a wide range of different ways, in collaboration with parents, teachers and other professionals to benefit all children and young people.
Some examples of this type of working include:
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- Facilitating solution-focused discussions with groups of establishments to support children and young people with ASNs (Locality Inclusion Support Networks)
- Training small groups of staff or whole establishments
- Running parent groups
- Supporting establishments to do action research e.g. finding out whether something has worked or not
- Supporting establishments with organisational change
- Working to identify and reduce inequalities for children and young people
- Being involved in and advising local authority groups considering ASNs
- Working across the local authority to develop systems to improve children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing
- Project work in establishments such as promoting nurturing approaches or developing inclusive communication environments.
This is just a small sample of the work that EPs do. Please explore our website to see some of the other whole service interventions we are involved in.
[Credit: O’Hare, D.P. (2021, October 22). Educational psychology. edpsy. https://edpsy.org.uk/about/educational-psychology/ – Some words have been changed to reflect the specific context of Scottish Educational Psychology Services]
