Parents
How can I help your child?
If you are looking for someone to support you and your child, to find ways of working with the environment they are in, to find solutions to the problems you face as opposed to telling you what is “wrong” with your child, to find your strengths, as well as your child’s and teacher’s strengths and work with these, then perhaps I may be the Educational Psychologist you are looking for.
When working with me through my Educational Psychology service – BlackLight Learning - I use a process called “consultation” to better support you, your child and hopefully their teacher as well. Educational Psychologists mean something quite particular when they use the term “consultation”. In this case, it means working with the supporting system, through the adults that know and support your child regularly, including you and their school.
Many children have barriers to their learning or have different learning styles. This can be unpicked further through consultation. It doesn’t always have to be through an assessment.
The term ‘consultation’ is an evidence based approach, where Educational Psychologists work in partnership with others, to empower and encourage a sense of ownership over plans. Through consultation, the Educational Psychologist does not work in a detached way or carry out assessments. Consultation is not about ‘diagnosis’ or about telling anyone what to do. It respects that everyone has a voice and understanding of the situation presented.
Consultation is a solution focused approach, where we will identify what is going well and perhaps what could be a little better, but by always acknowledging that the strengths are within those supporting the child already. Change is seen through consultation, and it is these changes that benefit children, families and schools.
I believe that the experiences, observations and knowledge of those who do know your child well is enough to make a plan of support, and it is this plan of support that is important. It is the “what are we going to do to help?” that is important. Consultation is a way to find that path towards being helpful.
I will bring my knowledge of psychology and everyone else will bring their understanding of your child and their school system.
What is the process of consultation?
It means we can get the conversation going quickly and a support plan in place, rather than waiting for a long report to arrive. It means that everyone agrees to the actions that could be helpful within their context. If people are signed up to the interventions and support, they are much more likely to happen than if they are told what to do.
First of all, it is really important that your child’s school is on board with this process.
During this consultation meeting, we come together, with everyone bringing their knowledge of your child's needs and strengths, and I bring my experience and psychological knowledge to make a plan of action to help move towards the positive changes that the adults in your child's life would like to see, which of course is different for everyone. So if you would like your child to be more confident in their social skills, or would like to help them with their literacy difficulties, for example, then that is what we would work towards.
Once the action plan is set, we have a review consultation all together a few months later to see how your child is getting along. Usually this is enough, but another meeting can always be scheduled if not.
Before we work together, I will email you a parental consent form and a school information form to complete prior to the consultation.
I will produce a report including an overview of your child's strengths and needs and agreed interventions to support your child. This is important as it captures the concerns but also what is going well and what everyone is going to do next. This will be the same process for the review, with a very brief report at the end.
Having worked in this way for some time now, I have seen only positive changes by using consultation, where real behaviour change can occur.
Assessments
Whilst I believe that consultation is an effective way of supporting a child with their learning or emotional needs, there are times when an assessment may be what a parent would like. Please email me your concerns, and we can identify whether or not an assessment is necessary. Assessments will be held at my home office in Bristol.
What next?
- Your child's name and age
- Your child's school or educational setting
- Your concerns
- Your contact details
I will get in contact with you as soon as I can.
Price
My hourly rate for consultations is £120 (this will be per hour of time used for the consultation meetings, the reading of paperwork submitted including consent forms, other professional reports, school reports, and time taken to write a consultation report).
My assessment rate is £750 (this includes the reading of paperwork submitted including consent forms, other professional reports, school reports, my assessment, brief feedback after the assessment and a detailed report). If you would then like a further consultation with school, this will be at my consultation hourly rate.