These EP FAQs were put together to support an understanding of the work of an Educational Psychologist (EP). The work we do is complex and we aim to support children, teens and young people in making progress in their educational learning. To do this we work with families, school staff and other professionals who are involved.

The school visit comes after there is parental permission to work with the child, teen or young person.

It also comes after having a consultation with the family.

If there is a need for a psychological assessment, this includes visiting the school and meeting the school staff – having some ‘consultation’ with them and finding out more information – attendance, their perspective on the individual’s learning journey, the school’s views, concerns and interventions that have been in place and for how long and so on.

It can also include, doing an observation of the child, teen or young person and then some individual work with them.

Individual or ‘direct’ work with the child, teen or young person includes introductions and explaining the purpose of the assessment.

It also includes finding out about the views of the child, teen or young person about their difficulties with learning. This can include use of open ended questions, such as asking about their interests and how they are finding learning at school.

It can also include using psychological tools and approaches depending on the EP’s judgement and experience, for example:

• Self-report questionnaires, such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Resiliency Scales (RS) or the Beck Youth Inventory (BYI).
• ‘Standardised assessment’, such as a ‘cognitive assessment’ – this is an optional part of the overall ‘psychological assessment’, however, it can be confused with the whole ‘psychological assessment’ process itself, particular when the word ‘assessment’ is so broad. Any results from a standardised assessment need to be interpreted cautiously and in the context of the holistic picture.
• Dynamic assessment, which explores the level of ‘mediation’ that a child currently needs and what approaches are needed to build their skills as a ‘learner’.

After the school visit, there may be time to speak again to the school staff, to discuss any initial hypotheses that may have formed. Any next steps are also discussed.

From this, there is likely to be a lot of information gathered, which is being processed and psychologically interpreted. It is this information that is used to complete the EP Report and develop recommendations that are shared with the family and school.

How the EP figures out what needs to be done is covered in another article. This covers more about the use of ecosystemic theory and the ‘consultation model ‘problem analysis’ framework.

If you are interested in a career in Educational Psychology, see the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) website. This gives comprehensive information about this career pathway into this worthwhile area of work within educational settings.